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i 

MILITARY AND CIVIL LIFE 



OF 



GEN. ULYSSES S. GRANT 



LEADING SOLDIER OF THE AGE ; PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 

STATES ; LOVED AND HONORED AMERICAN CITIZEN ; 

THE WORLD'S MOST DISTINGUISHED MAN. 



"Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with eternal God for power; 
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow 
Through either babbling world of high or low ; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life; 
Who never spoke against a foe." 

— Tennyson. 



BY 

JAMES P. BOYD, A. M., 

Author of "Building and Ruling the Republic," &c. 



ILLUSTRATED. 




P. W. ZIEGLER & CO., 

PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND CHICAGO, ILLS. 

1885. 



Copyright, 1885, 
By JAMES P. BOYD, A. M. 



GRANT k FA IRES, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



l* e 



PREFACE. 



NO one need explain why he writes about a person whom 
all admire and love. 

As to men, none occupy the place of General Grant in the 
affections of the people. His name is honorably connected 
with the highest office in the gift of the American voter. As 
President he was true to law and order, mindful of great and 
arduous duties, careful of the momentous trust reposed in him. 
To know of him as Chief Executive of the Nation will be 
esteemed a privilege and pleasure by the passing generations. 

But the real character, as well as glory, of this illustrious 
man was military. Had he overshadowed all other Presi- 
dents in profound statesmanship, wise diplomacy, and political 
acumen, the fame thus acquired would have been as Neptune 
to the Sun in comparison with that which sprang from his 
military career. 

Justly reckoned as the first soldier of the age, if not of the 
world, the nation is not more moved by admiration of his 
splendid military qualities than by gratitude for the timeli- 
ness of his victories and their saving results. He was a man 
of God raised up for an emergency. His genius brought 
victory, and with victory, peace. The noblest tribute that 
can be paid mortal man is his by universal acclamation. 

" He made his foes his friends." 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

Greatness here grows into grandness. War loses much of 
its grim visage. Victory hath its charm and value. Appo- 
mattox was not a vindictive triumph. The armies, despite 
differences, were brothers. Grant knew what war meant. It 
was not child's play, but earnest. He knew also what victory 
meant. If peace, reconciliation, mutual happiness and con- 
tentment, did not follow, victory was vain. Return to the 
flag, the common brotherhood, was the supreme object. This 
he achieved along with his grand victory. His conditions 
of surrender took the sting out of defeat and sent his foes 
away to their homes rejoicing in the magnanimity of their 
victor, and even surprised at their alienation from the " Stars 
and Stripes " and the common Union of States. 

As no other General ever made victory so sure, so none 
ever made it so complete. Smaller men had lost over and 
over again in the game of battle. Smaller men, in the hour 
of triumph, would have narrowed conditions, and postponed 
reconciliation. He made war a terribly earnest thing, and 
victory as real and substantial. The terms of Alexander, 
Hannibal, Wallenstein, Napoleon and VonMoltke were never 
generous. They always involved the selfishness of superiority 
and conquest, never the humanitarian spirit of unit}* and 
brotherhood. Herein Grant was greater than any historic 
hero, brighter than any preceding military star. He handled 
cohorts that they might win, yet never Avon for the sake of 
glorying in victor}* but of confirming peace. 

Possibly no man ever ended a triumphant military career 
amid more universal admiration. He shared alike the respecr 
of friend and foe. A grateful nation showered on him its 



PREFACE. 5 

highest political honors. He was not forgotten amid final 
retiracy, though too modest to be obtrusive and too well 
satisfied to be ambitious. Admirers strove to place him 
beyond want. In grave political emergency his name spon- 
taneously came to the fore. Wherever he appeared, the 
public clamored to show their respect. Whatever he said — 
and it was all too little — was weighed as the words of a seer. 
Amid financial wreck, through no fault of his own, he had 
the most unbounded sympathy. In his last hours, when 
confronting the foe to whom all heroes must strike their 
colors, amid the pain of a horrible malady, the inner heart 
of the nation was instinctively drawn to him, and regrets 
over his suffering and prospective loss were general and 
profound. 

And now that he is dead there is universal mourning. 
Our greatest and noblest has been taken. Let us learn of 
him and teach our children. Another, others, might have 
done so, but he saved us as a people, a government, a solidi- 
fied nation. He gave us order and law, peace and happiness. 
Though a larger and more perilous work than that of 
Washington, it was not unlike his. And as of him, an admir- 
ing, loving and grateful people will say : " First in war, first 
in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

My thanks are due to Badeau, Humphreys, Dana, Wil- 
son, Swinton, Young, and the various other army officers 
and civilians who are recognized as authorities upon the 
war and the times in which General Grant figured, and 
whose literary works I have consulted freely. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PARENTAGE — BIRTH — EDUCATION. 

The Grant name — Scottish clans — Crests and mottoes — Migration to America — - 
The grandfather in the Revolution — The Father in the West — Birth of Hiram 
Ulysses Grant — Story of the christening — His boyhood days — Anecdotes 
showing his disposition and qualities — His skill with horses — His heroism in 
danger — His ingenuity — Bravery and self-reliance — Did not like tanning — Off 
to West Point — His name changed by inadvertence — His career as a cadet — 
Rank in his class — Sketch of his appearance and character by a schoolmate — 
Completion of his education, 17 

CHAPTER II. 

IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 

With his regiment — At St. Louis and New Orleans — With Taylor in Texas — At 
Palo Alto and Resaca — The bloody fight of Monterey — The army sentiment — ■ 
At Vera Cruz with Scott — Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec — Capture of Mexico 
— Peace, and back to New York — Marriage — On the Pacific Coast — From Lieu- 
tenant to Captain — Resigns from the army — A farmer — In real estate — A 
tanner at Galena — As business man and citizen — Traits and disposition — • 
Analysis of character — The whole man at thirty-nine — Outline of the future 
General and President, 28 

CHAPTER III. 

THE REBELLION — HIS FIRST BATTLES. 

The Federal soldier and French Emperor — Grants political views — Sumpter and 
the awakening — The call for volunteers — Grant and his company — Colonel of 
Illinois Twenty-first — Off to Missouri — From Colonel to Brigadier — At Cairo — 
Capture of Paducah — Battle of Pilot Knob — Toward Columbus — Belmont and 
victory — The retreat — Effect of the battle — The Confederate lines — Its wings 
and centre — What Grant saw — The situation before Donelson, .... 45 

7 



5 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 

The Departments — Grant at Cairo — The move on Fort Henry — Capture of the 
Fort — Looking to Donelson — Marching on the stronghold — Foote and the 
Gunboats — Location and description of the Fort — Investment — Beginning the 
attack — Grant's motive and orders — Battle with the boats — They are driven 
back — Hard battle of land forces — Repulse and confusion — Grant restores 
order — Orders another attack — Brilliant charge on the left — A foothold in the 
enemy's lines — Heavy work along the whole line — The wonderful Council of 
War — Floyd's and Pillow's escape — Buckner proposes surrender — Grant's 
" unconditional " terms — Final surrender — The men and trophies — Grant's 
magnanimity — Halleck's treatment — Made Major General — Effect of the victory 
— Grant a Hero — A rejoicing country, 57 

CHAPTER V. 

SHILOH AND AFTER. 

Donelson and the South — European sentiment — Grant's guiding principles — 
Opinion of General Scott — The territorial loss — Grant and Sherman — Other 
victories for Union arms — National rejoicing — Grant's forward movement — His 
visit to Nashville — Halleck's enmity — The correspondence — Grant's disgrace 
and vindication — Smith at Pittsburg Landing — The new Confederate line — Its 
significance — Grant in command at Savannah — He consolidates the armies — 
Description of Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh — Buell's slow march — The Con- 
federates at Corinth — They mass for attack — Disposition of Grant's forces — 
The battle of Shiloh begins — The first day's fighting — The Federals recede — 
Their new lines — Terrific fighting — Second day's battle — The Confederates 
retire — Lost ground gained — Confederate retreat to Corinth — The victory com- 
plete — Effect of the victory — Change of sentiment, 79 

CHAPTER VI. 

CORINTH AND IUKA. 

Halleck and Grant — Reorganization — The three army corps — Grant snubbed and 
humiliated — The abuse heaped on him — His reply to a correspondent — Halleck's 
loss of time — A digging and shoveling campaign — Slow progress toward 
Corinth — Results of Shiloh lost — The Confederates strengthen Corinth — And 
play a trick on Halleck — Cornith an empty capture — Further waste of time — 
The army of 120,000 men divided up — Buell off to Chattanooga — Halleck to 
Washington — Grant's army reduced — Forced to defend a wide section against 



CONTENTS. 



9 



odds — His plan of operations — Kept constantly on the alert by Van Dorn — 
Battle of Iuka — Getting ready at Corinth — Strategic disposition of his forces — 
Wisdom of his work on the fortifications — Van Dorn's attack on Corinth — The 
two days' fight — Confederate defeat — The losses and pursuit — West Tennessee 
out of danger — Grant's congratulatory order — His modesty and the misrepre- 
sentations — Character as an officer, 101 

CHAPTER VII. 

PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 

Importance of the Mississippi Valley — Meaning of Grant's victories — Object of 
the respective armies — Opening of the Mississippi — Farragut and his fleet — 
Defences of Vicksburg — Combined Federal fleets — The canals — Bombardment 
by mortar flotilla and gunboats — Running past the batteries — Failure of the 
seventy days' siege — Grant's new plan of attack — He moves from Grand Junc- 
tion toward Grenada — Sherman goes to mouth of Yazoo — Pemberton falls back 
to Grenada — New arrangement of forces — Grant's communications cut at Holly 
Springs — Forced to retreat Northward — Sherman's Yazoo enterprise — He fails 
to get a foothold — Grant's determination — He organizes a third expedition 
against Vicksburg — Takes command in person — At Milliken's Bend and 
Young's Point — Trying expedients — Failure of the different plans — He sees 
what must be done — His persistency and originality, in 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 

Vicksburg — Situation and fortifications — Department of Tennessee — The army 
at Young's Point and Milliken's Bend — Grant's move to the south of Vicks- 
burg — Meets with disfavor among his officers — The movement begins — To New 
Carthage and Perkins — Grierson's cavalry raid — Porter running the Vicksburg 
batteries — Naval attack on Grand Gulf — Its failure — Grant crosses the Missis- 
sippi with his army — Lands on East side at Bruinsburg — Gets a foothold on 
Mississippi soil — Sherman's diversion at Hayne's Bluff — Grant's quick march 
inland — Battle of Port Gibson — Abandonment of Grand Gulf — Manceuvers to 
keep Pemberton and Johnston apart — Johnston driven from Jackson — Pember- 
ton beaten at Champion Hills — Battle of Black River Bridge — Pemberton's 
retreat upon Vicksburg — Grant's investment of the place — His danger from 
Johnston — Grant's right reaches the Yazoo — Capture of Hayne's Bluff — Com- 
munication opened with the upper Mississippi — Sherman's opinion of the cam- 
paign — Grant assaults the enemy's entrenchments — They prove too strong for 
capture — A second and more general assault — Porter co-operates with the fleet — ■ 
The terrible fire — A second failure — Regular siege operations begun — The 



10 CONTENTS. 

approaches — Closing and pushing the lines — Mining and countermining — John- 
ston in the rear — Pemberton offers terms — Grant sends his terms — Final 
agreement — Surrender — Prisoners and munitions — Grant takes possession — Sher- 
rnan drives Johnston — What Vicksburg meant — Grant's honors — His vindication 
—Character and historic position, , 128 

CHAPTER IX. 

FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 

Thoughts of Mobile — At New Orleans — Armies of the Mississippi Valley — Aid 
for Rosecrans — Chickamauga — Grant at Louisville — What was wanted — A new 
department — Grant given charge — Fears for Rosecrans — Grant assumes command 
— Rosecrans displaced — Thomas takes his command — Off for Chattanooga- 
Description of the place — The Federal situation — His move for supplies — Flank- 
ing the Confederates — The rear movement — A battle and its results — Opening 
communications — Effect on the army — Chagrin of the Confederates — Chatta- 
nooga saved — Concentrating his forces — Protecting Burnside — Sherman's magna- 
nimity — He reports at Bridgeport — A union of veterans at Chattanooga, 163 

CHAPTER X. 

BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 

Burnside and Knoxville — Grant's idea of his situation — Burnside's danger — 
Halleck's impressions — Grant's plan of relief — Ord rs to attack — Movements 
of Howard's corps — Thomas' grand demonstration — Bragg not retreating — 
Hooker's movement — He captures Lookout — Enemy's retreat — Grant's lines 
connected — Sherman crosses the Tennessee — Successes among the foot-hills — 
Ready for the grand battle — Sherman endangers the Confederate right — Bragg 
concentrates — Stubborn fighting — Hooker appears — Bragg further weakens his 
centre — Grant sees his chance — The splendid charge — Capture of the enemy's 
rifle-pits — Scaling the heights — Reaching the summits— Capture of men and 
batteries — Bragg's retreat — Grant's ardor leads him into the fray — Sheridan's 
pursuit — Night scenes — Trophies — A force sent to Burnside — Losses — Magni- 
tude of the victoiy — Effects on the country and armies — Grant's wonderful 
generalship — United Departments — Destiny foreshadowed, 176 

CHAPTER XL 

CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 

Burnside and Longstreet — Knoxville attacked — Effect of Chattanooga on Longstreet 
— His retreat — Congratulations for successes — A medal to Grant — Busy with other 
plans — Feeling Bragg's position — Winter quarters — Perilous trip to Nashville — 
Sherman at Vicksburg — A winter expedition into Mississippi — Features of the 
Western campaigns of 1863 — What they proved — A single leader demanded — 
The Confederate situation — The Federal situation — Bill to revive the grade of 



CONTENTS. 1 1 

Lieutenant-General — Grant's indifference to the honor — Orders to report at Wash- 
ington — His Western plans — His characteristic letter to Sherman and McPherson 
— Sherman's reply — A letter for history — Halleck's congratulations — Introduc- 
tion to the Cabinet — Commission of Lieutenant-General — Lincoln's speech and 
Grant's reply — Commander of all the Armies — Headquarters in the field, 200 

CHAPTER XII. 

PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 
War theatre in Virginia — Lee's army the objective — Concentration and Co-opera- 
tion — Grant reaches the front — Consults with Meade — Westward to Nashville 
— Sherman's plea — Reorganizes the Departments — Back to Washington — 
Headquarters at Culpeper — Reorganizes the Army of the Potomac — Retains 
his old staff — List of all the Departments — Number of troops in each — Their 
commanders — General plans — A central aim — Specific plans — Butler and the 
James — Movement of the Potomac army — Criticisms answered — Withdrawal of 
the Carolina garrisons — Embarrassment on account of Banks — Massacre at Ft. 
Pillow — Perfection of Grant's plans — The mighty machine ready — Orders to 
all the armies — Final consultation — Grand movement on May 4th — Notable 
letter from President Lincoln — Grant's reply — The dawn of battle. . 222 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE WILDERNESS. 

Lee's army — Its location and defences — The Federal army — Its strength, organiza- 
tion and location — Grant's movement — Its object and dangers — Its order — How 
effected — Its discovery — Confederate designs — Crossing of the Rapidan — A 
plunge into the Wilderness — Movement of all the armies — Disposition of forces 
— Lee attacks in the Wilderness — A counter attack — Results of the first day's 
fighting — What of the morrow ? — Preparations for an early blow — Confederates 
attack the right — Federals attack on the left — Determined all day fighting — 
Federal successes — Lee's anxiety to turn the Federal left — Then the right — 
Forced to retire — Federals hold all their ground — Character of the ground — ■ 
Cavalry fighting — -Tind of second day's fighting — Results thus far — Lee on the 
defensive — Losses of both armies — Grant's new plans, 240 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SPOTTSYLVANIA. 

Word from Butler — By the left for Spottsylvania — A brilliant manoeuvre — Splendid 
marching — Lee gets position — Strongly fortifies — Grant in his front — Sedgwick 
killed — The battle of Spottsylvania — " We will fight it out on this line if it takes 
all summer" — Terrific fighting — Heavy losses — Lee's position impregnable — 
Sigel beaten in the Valley — Butler driven — Grant undismayed — Ready for 
another move, 259 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE NORTH ANNA. 

By the left again — Lee's policy — A race for the North Anna — Lee deceived — 
Grant crosses — Warren's fight for position — Hancock over — Burnside cannot 
cross — Grant's wings separated — Efforts to unite them — Fierce trial of strength — 
Lee's position too strong — Perilous manoeuvre — Grant recrosses — A rapid swing 
to the left — Makes for the Pamunkey — Crosses and throws Lee back — Twenty 
miles from Richmond — A new base of supplies — The situation now — Cavalry 
dashes — The Totopotomoy region, 2.82 

CHAPTER XVI. 

COLD HARBOR. 

Grant's cavalry arm — Battle for position — Lee's strategy — Federal advance — Lines 
of both armies — Brisk skirmishing — Issue joined — Fierce battle of Cold Harbor 
— Tactics of both generals — Attack on Sheridan — Cold Harbor held — Lee 
extends his right, Grant his left — Continuous fighting and manceuvreing — Delay 
of Smith — Grant's disappointment — Attacks Lee's left — Swings his own left — 
The Chickahominy reached — Wilson's raid — Hunter in the Valley — Battle at 
the Chickahominy — Richmond's last defences — Criticisms on the battle — Its 
results, 291 

CHAPTER XVII. 

OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 

Grant's plans — His strategy — Vigor of his blows — Tenacity of purpose — More 
cavalry raids — Crossing the Chickahominy — Feint on Richmond — Over the 
James — A splendid and successful crossing — Attempt on Petersburg — Delay 
brings failure to capture — Investment of the place — Siege begun — Magnitude 
of the operations — Total losses — Condition of the armies, 305 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 

Description of Petersburg — Federal lines — Extent of works — Character of opera- 
tions — Difficulties — Cutting railroads — Extending works — Keeping Lee em- 
ployed — Strategic movements — Scare at Washington — Early's Northern march — 
Crosses the Potomac — Threatens the Capital — Defeat and retreat — Sheridan to 
the rescue — The Valley campaigns — Mining and besieging at Petersburg — The 
great explosion — Disastrous assaults — Pushing the lines Westward — Beyond the 
Weldon road — Diversions on Richmond — Capture of Fort Fisher — Wilmington 
falls — Sherman reaches Goldsboro — Peace propositions — Concentration and co- 
operation — Grant's lines West of Petersburg — Hard fighting for position — 
Closing on Lee, 316 



CONTEXTS. 13 

CHAPTER XIX. 

FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 
Sheridan's cavalry movements — Dinwiddie — Enemy at Five Forks — Break in 
Lee s lines — Warren in the breach — Sheridan's strategy — The brilliant battle of 
Five Forks — Victory and huzzas — Grant orders an assault — Attack on whole 
Petersburg front — Lee's entrenchments give way — Closing on Petersburg — 
The place doomed — Excitement in Richmond — Flight of Confederate President 
—Richmond abandoned — Lee gives up Petersburg — His retreat — The pursuit- 
Desperate race for life — Foiled at every point — Surrounded at Appomattox — 
Lee's letters — Grant's letters — The surrender — Humanitarian terms — Scenes 
and incidents — Grant's generosity — Off for Washington, ....... 360 

CHAPTER XX. 

NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 
Sherman in the West — His army organization — Drives Johnston from Dalton — 
Campaign to Atlanta — Splendid flank movements — The battles — Death of 
McPherson — Capture of Atlanta — Johnston's removal — Confederate retreat — - 
Price in Missouri — Canby's new military division — Hood's invasion of Ten- 
nessee — Thomas' campaign — Battles of Nashville — Hood's defeat and retreat — 
His army broken up — Sherman's " March to the Sea " — Numbers and plans — 
Capture of Savannah — Of Charleston — Long march northward — Battle of 
Bentonsville — Enters Goldsboro — Meets Schofield — Holds Johnston at Smith- 
field — Helps Grant — The situation, 401 

CHAPTER XXI. 

PEACE. 

Guarantee of peace — The welcome proclamation — Lincoln assassinated — Grant 
sent for — His own escape — The country's alarm — Johnston's surrender — Sher- 
man's faulty terms — Grant's intercession — Defence of his lieutenant — Self- 
sacrificing conduct — Other surrenders — Number paroled — End of rebellion — 
Grant's career thus far — Made a General — Made Secretary of War ad interim — 
His motives and great work — The President's motives — The embarrassing 
situation — Grant resigns — His controversy with Johnson — His feeling and vin- 
dication — Review of the whole situation, 431 

CHAPTER XXII. 

GRANT'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 

The vote and Congresses — The Political outlook — The Stanton affair — Johnson 
and his party — Johnson and reconstruction — Everything points to Grant — 
The nomination and campaign — "Let us have Peace" — Tbe inauguration — 



14 CONTENTS. 

The Cabinet — Grant as President — Efforts at reconstruction — His political 
policy — Financial policy — All the States re-united — The "Public Credit Act" 
— Foreign policy — Various public measures — His opinions on leading subjects 
— Review of his statesmanship — His family in the White House, . . . 448 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

grant's second administration. 
The vote and Congresses — Reasons for re-nomination — The Campaign — His 
election a vindication — Inauguration — Cabinet — Relations with his party — 
Difficulties of his second administration — His policy — Inflation furore — Leading 
measures — Historic incidents — Public sentiments — Review of his administrative 
career, 482 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 

The sailing — Ocean voyage — Receptions and ovations in England — Places visited 
— Speeches and ceremonies — Royal presents — To Belgium — Sights and scenes 
— Switzerland and Scotland — France and Italy — Egypt and up the Nile — ■ 
Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome— Cities of southern Europe — Through 
Holland and Prussia — With Bismarck and the Prince Imperial — Through 
Norway and Sweeden — Splendid welcomes — At the Russian Capital — From 
Poland to Spain — Back to Ireland — Off for India — Through China and Japan 
— A complete and graphic history of the circuit — The return — Welcome in 
San Francisco — The receptions everywhere — In private life again — Uses of the 
trip — A grand school, 498 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1880. 
The Political situations— Grant's name — Object of his friends — The Convention — 
Garfield's nomination — Grant's attitude — His conduct — Generosity — Vindi- 
cation — Valuble chapter on a much misunderstood theme, 558 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

PERSONAL HISTORY MEMOIRS — REMINISCENCES — ANECDOTES. 

Author's analysis of his character — His growth — Traits of disposition — Personal 
appearance — Constitution — Originality — Outline of the entire man — Solidity of 
his fame — Greater the more he is studied — Mrs. Grant — Her constancy and 
affection — His family — His habits — Beauty of his Home life — His mementoes 
— Memoirs — Opinions on leading measures — Frequent and familiar talks about 



CONTENTS. 1 5 

great men — Valuable reminiscences by George W. Childs, General Horace 
Porter, General Beale, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Walt Whitman, Postmaster- 
General Creswell, and other close friends — Anecdotes — A graphic chapter, 568 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE DYING HERO. 

Misfortune and disease — Nature of the disease — Mental strain — Financial ruin — 
At death's door — A nation's sympathy — Touching scenes — Rally — At work 
again — Temporary mastery of disease — Removal to Mt. McGregor — Hope — 
An heroic fight — Gradual failure — The last battle — The surrender — Grant no 
more — Death bed scenes — A bereaved family — A nation's sorrow — Muffled 
bells and solemn drapery, 635 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 

Solemn cottage scenes — National emblems of grief — Flags and mourning — Senti- 
ments of the press — Resolutions of sympathy — The Pulpit — President's procla- 
mation — Proclamations by Governors — A national funeral — Choosing a resting 
place — The pall-bearers — The family funeral — Dr. Newman's sermon — Start 
from Mt. McGregor — Route to Albany — In state at Albany — Scenes and 
incidents — To New York — In state at City Hall — Viewing the remains — The 
national funeral — Imposing closing ceremonies — The cortege — At the tomb — 
"Dust to dust" — The hero at rest — He sleeps well — InMemoriam, . . 673 







LIEUTENANT GRANT, AGED TWENTY-THREE YEARS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE BIRTH EDUCATION. 

THE Grant name is associated with the Scottish clans, 
though it is probably of Norman origin. The clan was 
powerful in the early days of the Scotch monarchy. John 
Grant commanded the right wing of the Scotch army at 
Halidown Hill, in 1333. During the Jacobite troubles the 
Grants held large possessions in the Strathspey country, and 
were Protestants and Whigs. Lieutenant-General Francis 
Grant was buried in Hampshire, England, Dec. 2d, 1781, and 
his monument bears a burning crest with the motto " Stead- 
fast." In " Fairbain's Crests of the Families of Great Britain 
and Ireland " are twenty-one different crests of the Grant 
family. One of them represents a burning hill, with four 
peaks each surmounted by a flame with the motto " Stand 
Sure ! Stand Fast ! Craig Ellachie ! " Another Grant had as 
a crest an oak sprouting and sun shining, with the motto 
" Wise and Harmless." Others still bore as mottoes " Stabit," 
"Stand Sure!" "I'll Stand Sure," "Immobile," "Stand 
Fast Craig Ellachie." These mottoes of the sturdy Grant 
clansmen are strikingly descriptive of the dominant traits in 
the character of their illustrious descendant, the subject of 
this volume. 

Matthew Grant came to America in 1630, and settled first 
in Massachusetts, then at Windsor, Connecticut. In the fifth 
generation from Matthew was Capt. Noah Grant, the General's 
Great-grandfather, who fought in the French and Indian wars. 

17 



1 8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

His son, Noah Grant, Jr., was a lieutenant of militia in the 
battle of Lexington, and subsequently fought throughout the 
Revolutionary War. He removed to Westmoreland county, 
Pa., where his son, Jesse Root Grant, was born, January 23 d, 
1794. 

Jesse R. Grant, whose father moved to the then North- 
west in April, 1799, lost his mother when he was eleven 




FATHER OF GENERAL GRANT. 



years old. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed as a 
tanner to a half brother in Maysville, Ky. After serving his 
time he began the tanning business for himself in Ravenna, 
Portage county, O. Though deprived of early schooling, he was 



PARENTAGE BIRTH EDUCATION. 



19 



a man of large information. Blessed with a strong constitu- 
tion, robust body, shrewd and comprehensive judgment, and 
being honest, frugal, industrious and persevering, he became 
prosperous and gradually extended his business to various 
cities and towns in the West. He was a man of strict integ- 
rity, a ready speaker and pleasing writer. 

At the age of sixty he gave up his business, having ac- 




MOTHER OF GENERAL GRANT. 



quired a fortune, to his sons Orville and Simpson. He subse- 
quently divided his property equally among his children, 
reserving enough to support himself and wife. His son 
Ulysses declined to receive any part of his father's fortune, 



20 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

modestly asserting that he had done nothing toward its accu- 
mulation. 

Jesse R. Grant was married at Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 
June, 1 82 1, to Hannah Simpson, daughter of John Simpson, 
a farmer of Montgomery county, Pa. She was also of Scotch 
extraction, and was noted for her great steadiness, firmness 
and strength of character. She was a consistent member of 
the Methodist Church from girlhood, a faithful and devoted 
wife, a careful and painstaking mother, and at all times and in 
all troubles the chief stay and comfort of her family. 

It is not strange that the offspring of such parents should 
be sturdy, virtuous, honest and truthful, and that with oppor- 
tunity they should develop all the qualities which fit men for 
the highest places of trust in politics, war or business. 

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27th, 1822, at 
Point Pleasant, in Clermont county, O. His father relates that 
soon after his birth a family discussion arose about naming 
him. His mother proposed Albert, after Albert Gallatin. 
An aunt proposed Theodore. The grandfather suggested 
Hiram. The step-grandmother, a student of history, pro- 
posed Ulysses. The result was he was christened Hiram 
Ulysses, and passed his childhood under this name. 

The year after, 1823, his father moved to Georgetown, 
within forty miles of Cincinnati. Here he passed his boy- 
hood, and it was that of one growing up in a comparatively 
new country. At an early age he began to manifest an 
independent, self-reliant and venturesome disposition. He 
was fond of riding and breaking horses, driving teams, and 
helping at whatever work he was able to do. At six he was 
a fearless horseman, and at twelve had broken many colts, 
some of which he used to ride at full speed, standing on their 
backs like a circus man. His quiet, gentle disposition, yet 
remarkable firmness, gave him wonderful control of horses. 

He was in demand among his neighbors as a trainer of 



22 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

young animals, but he could never be engaged for money. A 
neighbor had a fine colt which he could not teach to pace. 
He wanted young Grant to try his hand at teaching him, and 
was willing to pay handsomely. The boy would not hire 
himself. So he was engaged to carry a letter to a town some 
distance away, the colt to be ridden. After he was mounted 
and had started, the neighbor called out to him, " Please 
:each that colt to pace." He returned the horse at night a 
perfect pacer, but having found out that the letter was simply 
a sham, he could never afterward be persuaded to teach a 
horse to pace. 

The coolness, judgment and signal readiness in an emergency 
which afterward characterized his career as a soldier and 
general, was displayed at the age of twelve, in crossing the 
swollen waters of White Oak creek. He was driving a light 
wagon and pair of horses. In the wagon were two young 
ladies. The horses got beyond their depth and the alarmed 
ladies began to scream. 

"Keep quiet! Keep quiet!" shouted the perfectly self- 
possessed boy, " I'll "take you safely through." 

At this time his father had taken a contract to build a jail 
for the county. It was to be of timbers, and the boy under- 
took to haul the logs. His father consented, not thinking the 
task possible without help. To his surprise the big logs began 
to come faster even than the workman needed them. On 
going to the woods to inspect matters he found the boy using 
the horses to load with. He had erected an ingenious slide 
or gangway, one end on the ground, the other as high as the 
wagon, and by means of chains was making the horses roll 
the heavy logs up to their place on the wagon. The father 
saw that the boy was quite equal to the emergency. 

Though fond of games and all boyhood sports, he was 
modest and retiring. Yet his even temper and resolute spirit 
gained him the respect and confidence of his companions and 




SCENES IN GRANT'S BOYHOOD, GEORGETOWN, OHIO. as 



24 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

made him a natural leader among them. His modesty 
amounted to shrinking when in the company of older persons. 
This amiable, patient, cheerful, modest, light-hearted boy, was 
no laggard in his classes. Though opportunity for schooling 
was limited, he learned easily and well, and was quite apt in 
mathematics. 

Though peaceful, he never permitted himself to be imposed 
upon. Many instances are given to prove the fullness of his 
courage, his good sense and self-reliance. His innate sense of 
justice always inclined him to the weaker side in schoolboy 
controversies, and he fought his cause through on the line 
chosen at every hazard. 

However great the provocation, or however intense his 
anger, his father says he never knew him to utter a harsher 
phrase than " Confound it ! " This was sufficient for his quiet, 
suppressed wrath, yet it meant far more than the roystering 
expletives of the Hectors of the village school or even of the 
larger school of life. 

Industrious as he was, he did not like the business of 
tanning. He would learn the trade, but not to follow it. He 
inclined to trade in the Southern States. His father suggested 
West Point. This was something new, and he assented to it. 
The last official act of Hon. Thomas L. Hamer was to nominate 
to the Secretary of War Ulysses S. Grant, as a suitable person 
to receive the appointment of cadet at the United States 
Military Academy. 

And here came the confusion of Christian names, probably 
through the inadvertence of the member of Congress, who 
omitted Hiram and, knowing the mother's maiden name to be 
Simpson, ran its initial in with that of Ulysses. The cadet 
warrant was made out in the name of Ulysses S. Grant. 
Trusting to getting the matter fixed in the near future, the 
young man entered the academy and began his military educa- 
tion. But it was one of those things that would not fix very 




AT WEST POINT, 



26 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

easily. The " U. S." was too suggestive for his comrades to 
lose sight of. He was nick-named Uncle Sam, and the 
familiar appellation has been ringing among army comrades 
ever since. He never regarded the " S " as any legal part of 
his name. 

He entered West Point, July ist, 1839, at the age of seventeen. 
Though his previous education had been limited, he passed the 
examination readily. He never rose to a high position in his 
class, except in mathematics, engineering and military science. 
But he excelled in all military exercises, horsemanship and 
cavalry drill. 

He was a quietly good-humored, patient, determined stu- 
dent, not given to boisterous pranks, nor to bad habits. He 
never tasted liquor, and, strange as it may seem in view of his 
after smoking propensity, he neither smoked nor chewed when 
at the Academy. He respected all discipline and was never 
guilty of wanton violation of rules and regulations. 

He had as classmates Franklin, Ingalls, Reynolds, Augur, 
Ripley and Gardner, and as cotemporaries Sherman, Thomas, 
Meade, Humphreys, Smith and others who afterward became 
illustrious in war. Out of his class of over one hundred, only 
thirty-nine succeeded in graduating. Among these thirty-nine 
Grant graduated with the rank of number twenty-one. His 
diploma and commission both bore the entering name of 
Ulysses S. Grant. 

Prof. Coppee, of Lehigh University, who was at West Point 
with Grant thus speaks of the cadet : " I remember him as a 
plain, common sense, straightforward youth, quiet, rather of 
the old head on the young shoulders order, shunning noto- 
riety ; quite contented while others were grumbling ; taking to 
his military duties in a very business-like manner; not a 
prominent man in the corps, but respected by all and very 
popular with his friends. The sobriquet of ' Uncle Sam ' was 
given him there, where every good fellow has a nick-name 



PARENTAGE BIRTH EDUCATION. 2>] 

from these very qualities ; indeed, he was a very uncle-like sort 
of youth. He was then and always an excellent horseman, 
and his picture rises before me as I write, in the old, torn coat, 
obsolescent leather gig-top, loose riding-pantaloons with spurs 
buckled over them, going with his clanging saber to the drill- 
hall. He exhibited but little enthusiasm in anything. His 
best standing was in the mathematical branches and their 
application to tactics and military engineering." 

Nothing is better known than that the highest stations and 
first honors of life are not necessarily carried by those 
who rank first in colleges and academies. Yet it seldom 
happens that boyhood and schooldays are passed by any one 
without evidence of the qualities which bring success and dis- 
tinction. Scholarship is one thing, tenacity and purpose 
another. Fortune sometimes favors the former, she seldom 
refuses to yield to the latter. Judged by his rank in class, by 
the schedule of learned professors, by the grades and standards 
of a literary institution, young Grant was bound to be eclipsed 
in the race of life by those who started under the auspices of 
higher scholastic honors. But what was there in them to 
ascertain, and establish moral or manhood qualities ? They 
only showed the power of brain acquisition, and may never 
have reflected for a moment the sterling force of character 
and truly inherent worth which shape fortune against adverse 
currents and hew success out of the rough logs of circum- 
stance. 

More is to be learned of the future Grant from a study of 
his quiet, inner life and habitude than from the roll books of 
West Point. 



I 



CHAPTER II. 

IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 

N point of education, young Grant was equipped for military 
service, and presumably for the business of a lifetime. A 




GEN. SCOTT. 



West Point education has always been regarded as sufficiently 
liberal for every useful purpose. With full collegiate equip- 
ment, but with an endowment far beyond the gift of learned 
28 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 



2 9 



institution, the young graduate was appointed brevet second 
lieutenant in U. S. Army, July 1st, 1843, and assigned 
to temporary duty with the Fourth Regiment of Infantry. 
After a three months' vacation, spent at home, he reported 
to his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. In 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



1844, he moved with the regiment to Camp Salubrity, at 
Natchitoches, La. This was among the first moves made by 
the government in support of that policy which ended in the 
acquisition of Texas and the Mexican War. Here he had a 
life of the usual routine, and here he smoked his first cigar, 



30 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



the beginning of a habit which grew to be almost a charac- 
teristic. 

The next year, 1845, his regiment became part of the army 
of observation, under General Taylor, at Corpus Christi. In 
that year, Sept. 30th, he was promoted to the full rank of 
second lieutenant to fill a vacancy in the Seventh Infantry, but 
asked the privilege of remaining with the Fourth. 

This request was granted. Soon afterward, May 8th, 1 846, 




PALO ALTO. 



he participated in the battle of Palo Alto, and on May 9th in 
that of Resaca de la Palma. The army of observation had 
become one of occupation, and the Mexican War was on in 
earnest. Palo Alto and Resaca completed the discomfiture of 
the Mexican army, and sent it back over the river in confusion. 
It brought long-sought and welcome relief to the little garrison 
beleag-ued at Fort Brown, which hailed with shouts their 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 



31 



American rescuers. The young soldier had received his 
first baptism of fire and was fully introduced to the realities of 
his profession. 

Taylor, the old veteran, who never looked on war as a 
scientific pastime, and who never let an enemy have any rest, 
pushed in hot haste after the Mexican forces. He found them 




MONTEREY. 



at the stronghold of Monterey. It was a place which for 
strategic reasons the Mexicans could not afford to lose. For 
similar reasons, as well as for the moral effect of victory, the 
Americans must have it. There, therefore, occurred here, on 
Sept. 23d, 1846, one of the most closely contested and bloodiest 
battles of the war, in which Lieutenant Grant behaved with 



32 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



such wonderful coolness and bravery as to invite the praise of 
his superiors, and secure honorable mention of his conduct in 
the official reports of the battle. 

It is proper to observe here that in the Mexican War Ameri- 
can officers and soldiers were on trial for the first time in very- 
many years. However doubtful the propriety of the war, 




BATTLE OF MONTEREY 



sentiment was, for the time being, hushed amid determination 
to uphold the honor of the flag, cost what it might. The dull, 
monotonous life of the standing army unused it to warfare. 
So the call for every man to do his duty was urgent. Then 
defeat must be avoided for prudential reasons. The foe was 
by no means humane. It was vindictive ; enough so to put 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 33 

every man on his mettle, and make prominent the thought 
that self-preservation was truly the first law of nature. All the 
conditions stimulated to individual prowess, and tested to the 
fullest the inherent qualities of privates and officers. 

For some time General Scott had been gathering a large 
force at the Island of Lobos, for an attack on Vera Cruz. This 
was a part of the grand scheme he had conceived of piercing 
the Mexican vitals, and marching directly to their capital, 
Mexico. In order to augment his force, Grant's regiment was 
called to join him soon after the battle of Monterey. The 
siege of Vera Cruz lasted for some time. During its opera- 
tion the young lieutenant displayed great perseverance and 
activity, and won high honors in the capture of the city, which 
took place March 29th, 1847. 

After this event he was appointed regimental quarter- 
master, which office he filled with credit to himself and the 
service until the army was withdrawn from Mexico. Though 
this post exonerated its holder from active service with the 
troops, Grant never availed himself of the privilege, but 
joined his regiment on the eve of every battle and fought 
with his comrades through it. 

It was thus that he became an active and daring participant 
in the two days 'battle of Cerro Gordo, on April 17th and 18th, 
and the same must be said of the capture of San Antonio, and 
the battle of Cherubusco, August 20th, 1847. The battle of 
Molino del Rey was fought on September 8th, 1847. ^ was 
one of the hottest and deadliest of that celebrated march from 
the sea to the Mexican capital, and perhaps the most decisive, 
for both armies felt that its result would settle the question of 
further invasion. Lieutenant Grant here came into conspicuous 
view as a daring, dashing officer. He moved his command so 
steadily and firmly on the enemy's batteries, and evinced so 
much courage and determination, that the rank of first lieu- 
tenant by brevet was tendered him on the spot, and particular 
3 



34 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



mention of his name was made in the official reports of the 
battle, with a call of attention to his " distinguished and 
meritorious services." It is said he declined the honor which 
came in this direction because the rank of full first lieutenant 
had already fallen to him through regular channels owing to a 
vacancy occasioned by casualty in the battle. But another 
account says his nomination for the honor was forwarded to 
Congress, which failed to act on it If so, the neglect would 




CHAPULTEPEC. 



appear unaccountable to one who saw him act like a common 
gunner on that victorious day, and help to shove his piece 
amid showers of balls, up to the very breastworks of the 
enemy. 

At the storming of Chapultepec, which occurred a few days 
after, Lieutenant Grant had opportunity to especially distin- 
guish himself. Nearly half way up the steep slope to the 
castle walls stood a strong field-work, so flanked by ravines as 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 35 

to make its capture hazardous in the extreme. But it must be 
carried before the storming parties, weighted with fascines and 
ladders, could advance to scale the walls. The battalions 
ordered to take it, moved forward under a fierce and withering 
fire. Their ranks were frightfully thinned and more than once 
disorganized before it could be reached. Final success became 
doubtful under that short range fire from the redoubt. At 



CITY OF MEXICO. 



this critical moment Grant rallied a detachment of his regi- 
ment, and, with Captain Brooks, who did the same with that 
of the Second Artillery, suddenly wheeled to the left, and 
enveloping the enemy's right flank, rolled it back in confusion. 
Other regiments quickly came up to their support. A last 
and desperate charge was made and the redoubt was carried. 

This flank movement was a brilliant conception in the heat 
of battle, and on the spur of the moment, and it was carried 



36 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

out against overwhelming odds, and in the face of a raking 
fire. It was mentioned in various reports of the officers, and 
among others General Garland says : " I must not omit to call 
attention to Lieutenant Grant, who acquitted himself most 
nobly in my presence on several occasions." And then there 
are several mentions of how he " acquitted himself most 
nobly," among which was his persistent and effective service of 
a mountain howitzer, his rallying a handful of men right under 
the enemy's guns, his gallantly heading a desperate charge, 
his boldly galloping through storms of shot and shell, like a 
veritable Texas ranger, to deliver orders to his superiors, 
hurry up ammunition, and do whatever was expected of a 
faithful and daring subordinate. This conduct gained for 
him the rank of brevet captain. 

In the assault and capture of the City of Mexico his gal- 
lantry was as conspicuous as ever. The heart of the nation 
having been pierced, and the war being practically over, he 
devoted himself with fresh energy to the particular duties of 
quartermaster. His station was in the city, which gave him 
fine opportunity to study the disposition of the conquered 
people and the nature of their institutions. This study he 
prosecuted with zeal, even going so far as to organize expedi- 
tions to neighboring parts in quest of information, historical, 
political and military. It is hard to say what his impressions 
were, but it is not unlikely that they proved the groundwork 
of that interest in, and friendship for, the nation which he 
manifested in many ways during his political and civic career. 
At all times in his life he has been a keen observer of Mexican 
fortune and a well wisher of the Latin Republic. 

The sieges, toilsome marches and consummate strategy which 
characterized this advance from Vera Cruz to the Mexican 
capitol, and the many battles fought in the short space of three 
weeks, furnished a school for young Grant, which trained him 
for a position he then little dreamed of. He was one of those 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIER. 



37 



who in time of war, where action is required, and judgment is 
at a premium, naturally rise rapidly, if death spares them. 
But the proclamation of peace ended his preferment for the 
time, and the army was scattered through the various posts 
of our wide country. 

At the close of the Mexican War he was but twenty-five 
years of age, yet he had served in the active campaigns of 
two years, first under the resolute Taylor from Corpus Christi 
to Monterey, and then under the more sagacious Scott from 




GRANT COMPLIMENTED. 

the Sea Coast to the Mexican capital, and in the double capa- 
city of staff and line officer, he missed no important battle 
of the Avar except Buena Vista. As to duty and conduct, he 
drew praise where others of the same, or even superior rank, 
escaped mention. Altogether, this war, his first, proved his 
energy and established h's bravery, while It developed that com- 
prehensive judgment and those wonderful powers of command 
which fitted him for the great emergency of the Civil War. 



38 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

After peace was restored, Captain Grant came with his regi- 
ment to New York city, and to Sackett's Harbor, where it 
remained stationed till 1849. During a leave of absence in 1848, 
he married Miss Julia T. Dent, daughter of a St. Louis mer- 
chant. On his return to the regiment, he was again made its 
quartermaster. He continued to hold this office till 1853. 
In the fall of 1849, he had a taste of frontier life, by the 
removal of his regiment to Fort Brady, near the city of 
Detroit. In two years it returned to Sackett's Harbor. 

The gold fever had broken out in 1849, and a stream of 
emigrants had been drifting toward the setting sun. These 
were now clamoring for protection against Indians, and to the 
interests of embryo states. The government felt called upon 
to extend its strong military arm to the enterprising, though 
chaotic society of the Pacific shores. In 1852, Captain Grant 
was ordered to Fort Columbus, in New York bay, prepa- 
ratory to sailing for the coasts which are washed by the West- 
ern sea. 

At this time the shortest route was by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama. But there was no railroad, and the trip across the 
isthmus was tedious and dangerous, on account of the deadly 
climate. During the march across, many of the officers and 
men succumbed to the heat and malaria. Grant bore up 
against climate and hardships, and was thus enabled to be of 
great service to his comrades of less hardy mould and less 
patient disposition. At Panama, the cholera broke out in the 
regiment, which prevented its voyage up the Pacific for a period 
of several weeks, during which it was encamped on one of the 
islands off the city. 

The regiment, with greatly decimated ranks, sailed for 
Oregon, and Captain Grant's company was stationed at 
Columbia barracks, on the Columbia river. Here he had his 
first experience in Indian fighting. He took an active part in 
the expeditions fitted out for conquest and pacification, and it 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIERS. 39 

is to be supposed gained much information respecting Indian 
character, methods of warfare, and the resources of the new 
country. 

In 1853, he was on duty at Fort Vancouvre, where he 
received the full rank of captain. Soon after this he was 
assigned to the command of Fort Humboldt, on the coast of 
Northern California. Though supreme here, his life was 
monotonous and by no means suited to his tastes. Though 
quiet, he was not lethargic. Further promotion might be 
postponed for years. There being nothing in the immediate 
future to compensate him for prolonged absence from family 
and friends, he resigned his commission in the army, July 31st, 
1854, and came back to St. Louis to join his wife and children. 

Captain Grant was now out in the world and on his own 
resources. Those who are specially fitted for army life are 
by no means the best qualified for business success ; indeed 
they may be said to be disqualified. But Grant was bound to 
try. He moved, with his family, to a farm near St. Louis, 
which had been presented to his wife by her father. Here he 
threw aside his army habits as much as possible, stripped off 
his coat and went to work to build himself a house. This, 
finished and occupied, he turned resolutely to farming. It has 
been said that he failed as a farmer. He did not make money, 
for his place was small, but he made a living and improved 
his farm. In summer he was his own most active hand. In 
winter he paid great attention to stock, being very fond of 
fine cattle. 

He devoted four years of his life to this plain, honest and 
laborious occupation. Finding it not quite suited to his incli- 
nations, he leased his farm and moved to St. Louis, where he 
opened a real estate office in connection with a partner. This 
business did not develop sufficiently to support two families, 
and he soon drew out. 

Then he accepted a position in the custom house at St. 




IB T* ^"^^w^^n 



IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIER. 41 

Louis, but the collector who appointed him soon after died, 
and there arose one in his place who knew not Joseph. He 
was out in the world again with, as the metaphor of the 
ousted hath it, " his head under his arm." 

After many efforts for place and many failures through 
lack of the influence which rewards the politician rather than 
him whose sole recommendation is merit, he accepted a pro- 
position from his father to go to Galena and join his brothers 
in the tanning business. Though he had not in early years 
inclined to this business he availed himself of the offer and 
soon became familiar with the details from which he had for- 
merly shrunk. While his business career in Galena was 
fairly successful it was undemonstrative, and as a citizen he 
was retired and almost obscure. Few of the citizens, outside 
of his immediate business circle, got to know him intimately. 
But these few did not fail to discover beneath his natural 
reserve a surprising mine of rare qualities. The more he was 
studied the better he was known and loved. And it was so 
with him throughout his whole life. The silent, staid, unde- 
monstrative, almost immovable man was as complete a bundle 
of surprises to those who punctured the outer rim of his 
reserve as ever was found in human shape. The still tongue 
could be eloquent in a short sentence. The immovable face 
could light and play with dramatic fervor. The far-off heart 
could assume a nearness and warmth that gave to humanity 
a new interpretation and to friendship a new charm. 

And once beneath that rim of reserve and among the 
sterling ore of quality and character, there might have been 
discovered, in the rough to be sure, all the elements which 
entered into the future successful leader of the Federal armies 
and the honored President of the Republic. Looking back 
to the inner trait, disposition and quality, one sees in the 
modest Galena tanner the clearly defined outline of the after 
man. There was the beginning of that wonderful perceptive 




^^MmcAtt GRANTS RESIDENCE;^ 





IN MEXICO AND ON THE FRONTIER. 43 

vigor, mental scope, coolness of head, faultless judgment, 
unflagging energy, personal bravery, tenacious memory, 
mastery of detail, power of command, which in their ripeness 
and perfection constituted a genius unparalleled in military 
annals. 

Here then lived, at the age of thirty-nine, a quiet con- 
tented tanner, with a well-knit frame, a stout constitution, a 
good temper. He was temperate, economical, industrious, 
unambitious. He read some, observed more, thought most, 
remembered everything. Politics and policies did not disturb 
him. His religion was general reverence of the Supreme. 
He had no philosophy except that of common sense — no 
visionary schemes, no whims, no hobbies. The goggles of 
prejudice were not suited to his eyes. In business speech 
and thought he was severely plain and direct, in manners 
simple, in courage steadfast, in truthfulness unqualified, in 
hope unbounded, in honor sterling, in friendship firm. It is 
the picture of one who might have ever remained a modest 
well-to-do citizen. Looking further into it, it becomes the 
picture of one startlingly full of possibilities, and needing but 
the brush of circumstances and the colors of emergency to 
make it an unfading national portrait. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 

IN the picture just drawn of the quiet, unpretentious West- 
erner we have seen the possibilities of a chieftain. So the 
old world might have seen them in a study of a certain 
sub-lieutenant in the French army toward the end of the 
eighteenth century. But as to probabilities, what? How 
dissimilar here the two eventful lives. Grant was without 
ambition. Exacting opportunity, grave circumstance, must 
draw him out. Within him there was no impelling force but 
duty. The future Emperor of France, and arbiter of the 
destinies of Europe, forced his opportunity. ' He was ambitious. 
The possible with him became the probable. His pleasure 
was his duty. Power was his god. He carved, and built, and 
ruined, at the behest of selfishness. Grant was not Grant in 
a personal sense. He was only Grant on a call, in the midst 
of a duty, a high, supreme demand. He sought not,, but 
marched evenly with destiny. He grew with emergency, 
swelled and broadened under trial, till he filled every corner of 
expectation, and so was not great at the top, nor at the bottom, 
but solidly great, and the fame which followed reached from 
the humblest cabin to the lordliest palace. 

There was a political situation for Captain Grant, or rather 
citizen Grant, to look upon. There had been one for some 
time. How he looked upon it in 1856 may be inferred from 
the fact that he voted for Buchanan for President. He was 
soon convinced that this vote was a grievous mistake. There- 
after he inclined to the views held by Crittenden, Bell and Everett. 

45 



4 6 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



As to the attitude of North and South, he hoped that peaceful 
councils would prevail, and civil war be averted. Do not 




MAJOR ANDERSON. 

think he was neutral. When hope of compromise failed, his 
position was not doubtful. He had been educated at the 



THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 47 

public expense. He had sworn to defend the Constitution of 
the United States against its enemies. He was geographically 
of those whose instincts and judgments favored freedom. What 
could he be but a supporter of the national flag when it was 
attacked ? 

April nth, 1 86 1, Beauregard opened fire on Sumpter. On 
the 13th it fell, after a gallant defence by its garrison under 
command of Major Anderson. This was the resurrection of 
a patriotism which had hitherto been indifferent and sluggish. 
It was the thunderbolt which was needed to startle the torpor 
of the nation. It banished questioning and compromise, and 
evoked a spirit of determination, whose existence was not 
suspected. It was noisy challenge, shotted defiance. Honor, 
safety, solidarity, required acceptance, hostile meeting. 

On the 15th of April the President called for seventy-five 
thousand troops for three months. What a parody on the 
situation ! The holiday parade of a squadron was to stop the 
fifty year impetus of a studied, armed and desperate cause. 
" On this same morning," thus writes a friend in the family, 
" Grant laid down the paper containing an account of the 
bombardment, walked round the counter, and drew on his coat, 
saying, ' I am for the war to put down this rebellion. The 
Government has educated me for the army. Though I have 
served through one war I feel I am still a little in the nation's 
debt, and am ready to discharge the obligation.' " 
) On April 19th, four days later, Grant was drilling a 
company of volunteers in Galena. In another four days he 
was at Springfield, the capital of the State, with his company, 
and had offered his services to the adjutant-general of the 
army to serve in any capacity. 

This letter was not deemed of sufficient importance to pre- 
serve, but it stated that the writer had received a military 
education at the public expense, and now that the country 
was in danger, he thought it his duty to place at the disposal 







i^to.E J ^;^ns^z:s^^ : ^^^=^^ 



RESIDENCE IN I860. 



GRANT'S RESIDENCE, GALENA, ILLS. 



THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 



49 



of the authorities whatever skill or experience he had 
acquired. 

No reply came. He visited his father at Covington. Then 




GEN. McCLELLAN. 



he applied to General McClellan in command of the Ohio 
militia at Cincinnati. Still no employment. He went back 



So 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



to Springfield. He was useful there for five weeks, organizing 
the volunteers which were pouring into the city. His quiet 
assiduity and wonderful organizing force at length secured 
recognition. Governor Yates commissioned him colonel of 
the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry. 

He assumed command June 16th, 1861. Ordered to ren- 
dezvous at Quincy, he marched his regiment thither. Before 
he arrived, word was received to make Ironton, Mo., his des- 
tination. He made for the river to take a steamer. This was 
delayed. A portion of the Sixteenth Illinois Regiment was 
reported as surrounded by the enemy near Palmyra, and his 
regiment was sent to its relief. Before it arrived the difficulty 
was passed, and the Twenty-first fell into duty along the line 
of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, where it remained 
for two weeks. 

The only activity was a vain search or two after Tom Harris, 
who headed a band of Confederate scouts. Thence the regi- 
ment went to Mexico, Mo., where 
it remained another two weeks. 
Orders were received to march to 
Ironton, Mo. In passing thither 
through St. Louis the papers an- 
nounced his promotion to brigadier- 
general. It seems that Hon. Elihu 
B. Washburne, of Galena, had sug- 
gested the nomination, all unknown 
to the modest and unaspiring col- 
onel. It was seconded by all the 
members of Congress from the State, 
none of whom knew him personally. The newspaper an- 
nouncement was the first intimation of the promotion he had 
received. He turned over his command to Col. Alexander, 
who afterward lost his life at Chickamauga. 

His commission as brigadier was dated August 7th, 1 861, to 




GENERAL FREMONT. 



THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 



51 



date from May 17th. The State of Illinois, and all between the 
Mississippi and Rocky Mountains, comprised the Western 
Military Department. Maj.-General Fremont was in command. 
He assigned Grant to duty at Ironton, as commander of the 
district of South Eastern Missouri. In two weeks, his head- 
quarters were at Jefferson City. On Sept. 1st he was called to 
Cairo, where he established more permanent headquarters. 
His district comprehended not only South Eastern Missouri, 
whence it took its name, but Southern Illinois, and Western 
Kentucky and Tennessee. The junction of four great rivers 
lay within it — Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee. 

The Confederate, Polk, held Columbus, twenty miles below 
Cairo. Bragg was at Bowling Green, coercing Kentucky to 
abandon her neutrality. Thompson was in Missouri, and held 
the Mississippi south of the Ohio. The lines of the Tennessee 
and Cumberland were in Confederate hands. Those of the 
Ohio soon would be if Paducah were seized, which seemed 
likely. Grant saw the situation at a 
glance. He would forestall Polk, 
already moving on Paducah at the 
junction of the Tennessee and Ohio. 
On September 5 th, he notified Fre- 
mont and the Legislature of Kentucky 
of his intention. The first was neces- 
sary as a matter of duty, the latter 
because the position of Kentucky was 
one of armed neutrality, so far as she 
was concerned. " I am getting ready 
to go to Paducah. Will start at six 

and a half o'clock," was his dispatch to Fremont. There being 
no answer he sent again, " I am now nearly ready for Paducah, 
should not telegram arrive preventing the movement." 

No reply. At ten and a half o'clock he started with two 
regiments and a battery, using two gun-boats as transports. 




GENERAL BRAGG. 



52 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Despite an accident and delay at Mound City he arrived at 
Paducah at half past eight on the morning of the sixth. The 
town was seized without firing a gun, the Confederate Brigadier 
Tilghman hurrying out with his forces while Grant was getting 
ashore. He left a garrison and returned to Cairo, where 
Fremont's answer to his dispatch awaited him. It gave him 
permission to take Paducah, " if he felt strong enough." 

Brigadier-General C. F. Smith was given command of the 
place, and Grant was rebuked for corresponding with a State 
Legislature. This seizure was much criticised at the time, 
but Kentucky speedily passed resolutions favoring the Union, 
and neutrality became a myth. The generalship of Grant was 
not bad statesmanship. Military circles were not happy circles 
then. They seldom are. The genius that could grasp so 
boldly, act so promptly as to save an important strategic point, 
and at the same time so encourage the Unionists in a State 
Legislature as to embolden them to wipe out a fiction called 
neutrality, which was hardly less demoralizing than secession, 
was a little too startling to be readily tolerated, especially 
since it was found in one almost unknown. Grant would 
remain at Cairo. 

This was also an important centre. It was a natural gather- 
ing point for operations on the lower Mississippi. Thither 
clustered the forces of the North in sublime confusion. 
Grant's command amounted almost to personal superinten- 
dence. There was not an officer of the regular army 
or trained soldier there. He had to teach regimental and 
company officers their simplest duties. His staff was of 
entirely green timber. It too had to be taught. And thus 
as adjutant-general, quartermaster, commissary, ordnance 
officer, and aid-de-camp, ordering, drilling, teaching, he passed 
from morn till night and night till morn. The force under his 
command grew to 20,000 men, very like an army. 

Grant wanted to take Columbus on the Mississippi, twenty 



THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 



53 



miles below him. Fremont could not hear. That meant the 
fall of Belmont right opposite on the west bank. Still Fre- 
mont was deaf. Perhaps he was proving himself too good a 
drill master. His judgment of men brought around him an 
excellent staff. He was laying the foundations of an army 
whose force was to be felt in the West till the end of the war. 
After all the seeming discrimination against him had its com- 
pensation. He murmured not, but worked, and his work 
told, no matter into whose hands it afterwards fell. 

On October 21st, a detachment of his forces under Col. 
Plummer met Jeff Thompson near Pilot Knob. After a two 
hours' fight the enemy retreated, leaving sixty killed on the 
field. This was the beginning of what became a general and 
very pretty movement. Fremont had ordered a force from 
Ironton to attack a strong Confederate position on St. Francis 
River. He ordered Grant to assist. 
Col. Oglesby was sent with three 
thousand mixed troops. This was 
Nov. 1st. On the 5th Fremont sent 
word to Grant that Polk, at Columbus, 
was reinforcing Price, who was then 
confronting Fremont, and that he 
should begin at once his proposed 
demonstration on Columbus. This 
was a grand chance. Grant requested 
Smith to move directly from Paducah 
on to Columbus. He strengthened 

Oglesby with a regiment, and ordered him to swing to the 
south of Belmont. He at the same time started down the 
river with five regiments of infantry, one section of artillery, 
and two squadrons of cavalry, thirty-one hundred and fourteen 
men, in transports. Smaller detachments were also ordered 
from Bird's Point and Fort Holt. 

On the evening of the 6th, hearing that Polk had been 




GENERAL PRICE. 



54 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

crossing forces to Belmont all day, and fearing for Oglesby's 
.safety, he decided to turn his attention to Belmont. So on 
the 7th he landed at Hunter's Point, three miles above Bel- 
mont and out of the range of the guns at Columbus. A line 
of battle was formed. General Pillow hurriedly crossed four 
Confederate regiments from Columbus, reinforced Col. Tappan, 
and took command. By nine o'clock the engagement was on. 
After four hours' fighting the Confederates were driven com- 
pletely back across the lagoon, losing their camp, artillery, 
equipage and many prisoners. 

Carried away by the first flush of victory, the Federals lost 
their heads. Pillow had reformed his lines at the river's bank, 
and Polk, overlooking the scene from Columbus, had sent him 
reinforcements. Grant, who had had a horse shot under him, 
strove to reform his men. He strove in vain. To stop the 
tumult and plundering he ordered all the camps to be burned. 
The smoke proved a target for the Confederate guns at 
Columbus, which opened fire with demoralizing effect. The 
Confederate reinforcements (Southern History of the War, 
pp. 206-8) increased their force to twelve regiments, nearly 
double the Federal force. To remain was destruction. 

Pillow was making good use of his reinforcements and time. 
Anticipating Grant's desire to get back to his boats at Hunt- 
er's Point, he intercepted him. " We are surrounded ! " was 
the cry. In such a case surrender seemed inevitable. " We 
must cut our way out as we cut it in," was the reply of the 
imperturbable Grant. 

Hesitation ended. There was solemn work to do under a 
determined leader. The officers and troops fell to it earnestly. 
The enemy disappeared a second time over the banks. The 
transports were reached, and embarkation took place, under 
comparatively fair discipline. The Federal loss was killed, 
wounded and missing, 485. The Confederate loss was 632 
according to their own history. The Federals carried off 175 



THE REBELLION HIS FIRST BATTLES. 55 

Confederate prisoners and two guns, and spiked four others. 
General Grant's superintendence of the embarcation left him 
entirely behind his army. Anxious to see that all were safely 
in he lingered on a knoll, till within musket-range of a freshly- 
formed Confederate detachment, which was ordered to fire on 
him. But the transports were then the centre of attention, 
and so the General escaped, riding swiftly down to the last 
boat and boarding it just as it pushed offshore. 

This first engagement of great magnitude in the Depart- 
ment was claimed as a substantial Federal victory. It is not 
always certain what makes a victory. The object was to pro- 
tect Oglesby. It is certain that Polk sent no more reinforce- 
ments to harass him. He remained at Columbus, lest some- 
thing worse than Belmont should happen. As to Grant, two 
things came about. He learned that nothing is to be gained 
by delay when two armies are fresh and undisciplined. His 
men learned that an expedition was not a holiday. The 
necessity for hard cohesion and stern discipline was so im- 
pressed on them that the soldiers of Belmont never failed to 
make their mark in subsequent struggles. 

Notwithstanding Kentucky neutrality, the Confederates had 
formed a line from Columbus on the left to Bowling Green on 
the right, the former on the Mississippi, the latter at the 
junction of the Louisville and Nashville and Memphis and 
Ohio railroads. Strong armies were on both wings. In the 
centre, where the natural passage was by the rivers, and where 
the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were but twelve miles 
apart, were two strong forts, Fort Henry on the Tennessee, 
and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. These were well 
selected, well fortified. They compacted a line whose preser- 
vation meant the salvation of Memphis, Nashville and the 
entire country for hundreds of miles southward. Should these 
forts fall, Bowling Green and Columbus, the two flanks and 
extremes would be turned. They would fall also, and with 



56 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



them the scene of battle would be shifted to other lines far 
beyond. 

General Grant was looking upon this situation in early 
November, 1861, after the experience of Belmont. He saw 
these Confederate lines strengthen day by day. He knew the 
Confederacy was throwing into the forts, and the strong wings, 
its forces by the thousands, and was sending thither its best 
commanders. With a prescience which then seemed to be 
only his, he planned victory where it would tell with paralyz- 
ing effect on the enemy, and when it would electrify the 
country. For months there had been strain, exhaustion and 
gloom at home. What progress are we making ? Where are 
our victories ? When will it end ? were the inquiries of the 
dissatisfied and despondent. Europe was nervous and peevish 
over the blockades. Loyalty was in the dumps. A cause 
seemed laggard or on the wane. 




GEN. LEONIDAS POLK. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 



GENERAL FREMONT'S administration of affairs in Mis- 
souri having proved unsatisfactory he was relieved on 
Nov. 9th, 1 86 1. On the same day General Halleck suc- 
ceeded with both civil and military authority. The new com- 
mand included Missouri, Arkansas, Western Kentucky, and 
all the territory over which Fremont had had civil control. 
At the same time that part of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee lying east of 
the Cumberland river was erected 
into the department of the Ohio. 
Buell was given command of this. 
Halleck continued Grant, giving 
him the district of Cairo, which in- 
cluded Paducah. Here he held him 
for two months, organizing and disci- 
plining the incoming troops. Early 
in January, 1862, McClellan, then 
General-in-Chief, ordered Halleck to move a force toward 
Mayfield and Murray in Kentucky. This order was sent to 
Grant, who at once sent McClernand from Cairo and Bird's 
Point with six thousand men, and C. F. Smith with two 
brigades from Paducah. The object was to threaten Colum- 
bus and the entire Confederate line, so as to prevent reinforce- 
ments being sent to Buckner at Bowling Green. This order 
was given on January 6th; on the 10th it was countermanded, 
but too late, for Grant was on his way. Though there was no 

57 




GEN. HALLECK. 



58 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

fighting, the Confederate reinforcements were detained at Col- 
umbus. Nashville was threatened, and Brig.-Genl. Geo. H. 
Thomas, one of Buell's subordinates, fought and won the battle 
of Mill Spring, in Kentucky. 

Smith on his return pronounced the capture of Ft. Henry 
feasible. On January 22d Grant sent this report to Halleck, 
and asked permission to visit him at St. Louis to talk the 
matter over. On the 23d he started on the visit, but Halleck 
would not hear to his proposition to capture the fort. Neither 
McClellan nor Halleck were yet ready for a move up the 
Tennessee. 

Grant was too full of the idea to abandon it quietly. On Jan- 
uary 28th he telegraphed Halleck, " I will take and hold Ft. 
Henry, on the Tennessee, and establish and hold a large camp 
there." 

On the next day he wrote : " In view of the large force now 
concentrating in this district, and the present feasibility of the 
plan, I would respectfully suggest the propriety of subduing 
Ft. Henry, near the Kentucky and Tennessee line, and holding 
the position. If this is not done soon there is but little doubt 
that the defences on both the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers will be materially strengthened. From Ft. Henry it 
will be easy to operate either on the Cumberland (only twelve 
miles distant), Memphis or Columbus. It will beside have a 
moral effect on our troops to advance thence on the rebel 
States. The advantages of this move are as perceptible to the 
general commanding as to myself, therefore further statements 
are unnecessary." 

On the 28th Commodore Foote, in charge of the naval 
force in this region, wrote to the same effect. At last 
Halleck yielded, and on the 30th sent detailed instructions to 
Cairo, which were received February 1st. On the 2d Grant 
started from Cairo with seventeen thousand men on transports, 
accompanied by seven ironclads under Foote. Two days 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 



59 



afterward the land force was disembarked three miles below 
Ft. Henry, with a view of attacking it in the rear, while the 
gunboats made an attack in front. 




COMMODORE FOOTE. 



Ft. Henry was on the east bank of the Tennessee, and at 
this time was surrounded by water, owing to a flood in the 



6o 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



river. On the opposite side was the unfinished Ft. Heiman. 
The Confederate force was under command of Brig.-Genl. 
Tilghman. It numbered twenty-eight hundred men. Though 
the heights on which Ft. Heiman were situated commanded the 
river and Ft. Henry, they were evacuated on the first approach 
of danger, owing to the unfinished condition of the fort. Ft 
Henry was a strong field-work, with bastioned front, defended 
by seventeen heavy guns, twelve of which bore on the river. 
On the land side was an entrenched camp, outside of which 
were lines of rifle-pits. As soon as the intention of the Fed- 
erals became known Tilghman ordered reinforcements from 
the Sandy river and Ft. Donelson. 

Grant desired to capture both forts with their garrisons. 
C. F. Smith was sent with two brigades to invest Ft. 
Heiman, the fact that it had been evacuated not then being 
known. McClernand was sent to the rear of Ft. Heniy, with 
orders to take and hold the straight road to Ft. Donelson. 
This was February 6th. The Confederates were receiving rein- 
forcements rapidly. McClernand was admonished that success 

might depend on the celerity of 
his movements, and his troops 
were ordered to hold themselves 
in readiness to charge and take 
the fort by storm, promptly on 
receipt of orders. At 1 1 a. m. on 
the 6th the march began. The 
gun-boats moved at the same 
hour, and before noon attacked 
the water batteries at a distance 
of six hundred yards. 

In an hour and a half, after a 
severe fire, every Confederate gun was silenced, no vessel hav- 
ing received serious injury except the Essex. The Fort 
surrendered, and Genl. Tilghman and sixty men were captured. 




gen. McClernand. 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 



61 



The rest of the garrison were stationed in the out-works two 
miles off. Before surrender these had been ordered to retreat 
on Ft. Donelson, which order they promptly obeyed. 

The Fort had surrendered so quickly that Grant's land force 
had not time to reach the Ft. Donelson road and intercept the 
retreating foe. Pursuit was ordered, but only with the effect 
of capturing a few prisoners and two abandoned guns. Even 
had the fort not fallen quicker than either Grant or Foote 
supposed, the march of McClernand could hardly have been 
made effective, for he had to construct roads through woods 
and waters at great loss of time. Nor would delay of another 
day for purposes of investment have insured a greater capture, 
for Tilghman had resolved to retire his men to Ft. Donelson as 
quickly and safely as possible, the fight at the fort being kept 
up solely for that purpose. The losses were few. Foote lost 




INTERIOR OF FT. HENRY. 



two men killed, thirty-seven wounded, beside the nineteen 
lost by a casualty on the Essex. Tilghman reported five killed 
and sixteen wounded. Several of the gunboats were struck 
and pierced. 

Grant at once telegraphed Halleck : " Fort Henry is ours. 



62 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The gunboats silenced the batteries before the investment was 
completed. I shall take and destroy Ft. Donelson on the 8th 
and return to Ft. Henry." * 

Here was evidence of confidence and action which- had 
greater significance than the simple movement and proposition 
involved. The war had thus far given no substantial victory. 
It had brought forth no orderly plan and no man of grasp and 
genius. The people were dissatisfied and despondent. They 
were praying for a way out of the wilderness and wondering 
whether such way would ever be found. Grant's capture 
of Ft. Henry looked like business. His proposition to move 
on Donelson savored of the heroic. There would soon be 
applause, or else a deeper midnight. 

In anticipation of a movement on Donelson, the Confeder- 
ate General Pillow assumed command on the 9th, and began 
to make herculean effort for the coming struggle. Tilghman's 
force had already arrived from Ft. Henry. Floyd was sent 
with his command from Russelville. General Johnston at 
Bowling Green decided to fight the battle for Nashville and 
Middle Tennessee at Donelson. He drew all the force he 
dared from in front of Buell and sent it to Donelson. 

Grant was equally active. He had not even been congratu- 
lated by Halleck for his work at Ft. Henry, though the design 
of the enterprise was undoubtedly his. He had been ordered 
to strengthen and hold Ft. Henry at all hazards, and if he 
moved at all to move cautiously. But disdaining slight and 
not being out on a pick and shovel campaign, he pushed his 
cavalry toward Donelson to feel the situation. It was a strong 
place, " the strongest in that theatre of operation." Everything 
that military skill and engineering could do for it had been 
done. To repel attack, the natural position was formidable, 
and all the appliances of the science of war had been added. 

On the 8th all the infantry and cavalry on the east bank of 
the Tennessee were notified to be prepared to move with two 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 63 

days' rations, and " without incumbrance." Baggage and artil- 
lery could not be moved owing to the condition of the roads. 
The water rose higher and locked his forces in. A delay 
of several days occurred. It was not lost time, for it gave rein- 
forcements opportunity to come up. They came from Buell, 
and from Hunter, in Kansas. Not a word from Halleck as 
yet in favor of the movement, but full instructions how to 
fortify and hold Ft. Henry, with promise of reinforcements. 
Grant saw that every day lost with shovel and pick at Ft. 
Henry was giving the Confederates an opportunity to 
strengthen Ft. Donelson. 

He urged Com. Foote to send a fleet of gunboats up the 
Cumberland river to co-operate with him in the attack. 
" Start as soon as you like," was the reply ; " I will be ready 
to co-operate at any moment." On the nth Foote started 
with his fleet from Cairo. Six regiments of troops were sent 
by the same route, which were to follow the gunboats, land 
below the fort and establish a base of supplies. 

On the same day (nth) McClernand moved out four miles 
on the two roads toward Donelson. On the 12th, fifteen 
thousand men left Ft. Henry and marched in the same direc- 
tion, leaving two thousand five hundred behind as a garrison. 
Only eight light batteries were taken along. Tents and bag- 
gage were left behind. There were few wagons and no rations 
save only those in haversacks, all supplies having been 
ordered direct from Cairo to the Cumberland. 

The foremost brigade was ordered to move direct on Don- 
elson by the telegraph road, and to halt within two miles of 
the fort. The other brigades were to move by the Dover 
road, Dover being two miles south of the fort on the river. 
There was no obstacle to the march. The distance being 
only twelve miles, the troops were on the ground around the 
fort by noon, but without orders. "The necessary orders 
will be given on the field," was Grant's word as to details. 



64 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Ft. Donelson was on the west bank of the Cumberland, on 
a rugged and timbered ridge overlooking the river. It com- 
manded both river and country. On the water front, in 
sunken batteries, were ten thirty-two pounders, one ten-inch 
Columbiad, and one heavy-rifled gun. On the land side were 
continuous main and inner lines of breastworks for over two 
miles, covered with abattis. Both flanks of these lines rested 
on creeks, the banks of which were overflowed by back-water 
from the Cumberland. Outside of all was a line of rifle- 
trenches, extending to the town of Dover. Inside the fort 
were twenty-six regiments of infanty, two independent bat- 
talions and Forest's cavalry, numbering in all twenty-three 
thousand muskets and sixty-five guns, seventeen of which 
were heavy, the rest field-pieces. 

Pillow had succeeded Buckner on the 10th. On the 13th 
Floyd succeeded Pillow, though all remained to prepare for 
the impending conflict. On the 12th Grant's advance en- 
countered the Confederate pickets and drove them in. His 
first line was formed in open field opposite the enemy's centre. 
He threw up no entrenchments. " I hope to avoid the neces- 
sity of doing so with the aid of the gunboats," was his lan- 
guage. By night his lines ran from Hickman Creek to Dover, 
and the investment was complete. When the siege began 
General C. F. Smith held the left and McClernand the right. 

As yet there was no appearance of the gunboats. The 
1 3th was spent in reconnoitering and securing better positions. 
There was skirmishing, but no attack by the Confederates, 
though many men fell, the Federal losses being estimated at 
three hundred killed and wounded the first two days. No 
gunboats yet. The night grew cold and the men suffered 
greatly. All were obliged to bivouac in line of battle with 
arms in hand. No fires could be built, on account of the 
number and closeness of the enemy's pickets. Provisions 
were scarce. By morning a driving hail and snow storm had 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 65 

set in. Many on both sides were frozen. Picket firing never 
ceased. The groans of the wounded between lines, freezing 
and athirst, filled the night with horror. Grant found his 
force weaker than the enemy's, and those he had left at Ft. 
Henry were sent for. Where was Foote with the gunboats ? 

Through the gray mists of Friday morning, the 14th, Com- 
modore Foote appeared with his fleet of turtle backs, as the 
gunboats were called. The reinforcements from Ft. Henry 
were coming in. Those commanded by General Lew Wallace 
were at once put in line. McArthur's brigade of Smith's 
division was on the extreme right. In the centre were forced 
the reinforcements which had come up the river with the 
boats. These dispositions were effected by noon of the 14th. 

Grant, who had received no word from Halleck except to 
dig and shovel at Ft. Henry, sent a dispatch dated " In the 
Field near Ft. Donelson." It read : — 

" We will soon want ammunition for our ten and twenty- 
pound Parrott guns. Already require it for the twenty-four- 
pound howitzers. I have directed my ordnance officer to 
keep a constant watch upon the supply of ammunition, and to 
take steps in time to avoid a deficiency." 

A reply came from General Cullum at Cairo : " The ammu- 
nition you want is not here, and scarcely any ordnance ;" but 
he added, encouragingly, " You are on the great strategic 
line." This was the first favorable word Grant had received 
from headquarters or near it. 

It may be asked why therefore was Grant moving ? Was 
he not assuming responsibilities in spite of the department 
commander? He was moving inspirationally, yet in obedi- 
ence to orders from a higher source. As early as January 
27th, President Lincoln, through and at the instance of Secre- 
tary of War Stanton, had sent out word for " a general move- 
ment of the land and naval forces of the United States against 
the insurgent forces on the 22d of February," Washington's 
5 



66 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

birthday. This was to break the impending gloom and in- 
spirit the nation, which had become sick with waiting and dis- 
comfiture. Grant interpreted this order as meaning that he 
need not wait till the 22d. 

At 3 p. m. of the 14th, Foote steamed into position, and 
opened fire at close range on the Confederate works with six 
gunboats, four of which were ironclad. Their batteries re- 
plied with telling effect. Still the ironclads advanced. They 
came within four hundred yards, and the action was close and 
hot for an hour and a half. The enemy's guns being elevated 
and having commanding sweep, they crippled the gunboats 
so that they had to haul off, with a loss of fifty-four men 
killed and wounded, among the latter being Commodore 
Foote and several officers. 

Where were the land forces ? Skirmishing all day, except 
McClernand's, which had gotten into a hard fight on the right, 
though without orders. Grant intended to make a general 
attack only in case the gunboats succeeded in silencing the 
Confederate batteries. As this failed he wrote : "Appearances 
now are that we shall have a protracted siege here. ... I 
fear the result of attempting to carry the place by storm with 
new troops. I feel great confidence, however, of ultimately 
reducing the place." The losses up to this time had not ex- 
ceeded three hundred and fifty killed and wounded. 

There was another night of intense cold and suffering. 
The Confederates were in spirits because they had beaten off 
the gunboat attack. The Federal forces were depressed, but 
the idea had not entered General Grant's mind that he had 
lost the day. In the words of Oglesby, " he had gone there 
to take the fort and intended to stay till he did it." 

At 2 a.m. of the 15th, Commodore Foote sent for Grant. 
He went aboard the flag-ship, and Foote told him he was com- 
pelled to put back to Cairo for repairs. He urged Grant to 
keep quiet till he could return. But reinforcements were 



68 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

coming in rapidly, and there were present twenty-two thou- 
sand Federals. The Confederates felt that the investment was 
getting closer and stronger, and they determined to break it. 
Their generals in council had decided that " but one course 
remained by which a rational hope of saving the garrison 
could be entertained, and that was to drive back the molesting 
force on the Dover side, and pass their troops into the open 
country in the direction of Nashville." 

Therefore, on the morning of the 15th, ere it was light, 
they massed heavily on their left and made a fierce attack on 
the Federal right line where it did not quite reach the river. 
McArthur's brigade of Smith's division received the first blow. 
The attack rapidly extended to Oglesby's and W. H. L. Wal- 
lace's brigades of McClernand's division and to Cruft's brig- 
ade of Wallace's division. The Federals held on tenaciously 
against the solid masses and great odds of the enemy, seldom 
leaving their ground till ammunition was exhausted. At 
length McArthur, after an unequal struggle of hours, gave 
way, and McClernand's command showed signs of wavering. 
But it held till reinforced by General Lewis Wallace, when 
the Confederates were made to pay dearly for all they had 
gained. This fresh force checked the Confederate onslaught 
for a time, but it was soon renewed more fiercely than ever. 
For hours the conflict was hot and doubtful, and though the 
Federal right was kept intact it was pushed far back from its 
original position and nearly turned. General Pillow was elated, 
and sent the following to Johnston at Nashville : " On the 
honor of a soldier the day is ours." 

By nine o'clock Grant came from his interview with Foote. 
He was met by an aid who told him of the Confederate sortie. 
Further on he met General C. F. Smith whom he ordered to 
prepare his left for an attack on the Confederate right. Then 
he came into contact with his broken and disordered troops. 
Many of his best officers, Logan, Lawler, Ransom and others 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 69 

were wounded. Many others were killed, and some of his 
best regiments and brigades were torn to pieces. 

There was now a keen eye on the situation. It took in 
two things. The Confederates had not pushed their oppor- 
tunity, if one really existed. Again their knapsacks were 
loaded with provisions. " They mean to cut their way out : 
they have no idea of staying here to fight us," was the con- 
clusion Grant quickly drew. Then he said to those near him, 
" Whichever party first attacks now will whip, and the rebels 
will have to be very quick if they beat me." 

Galloping to where he had left Smith, he ordered him to 
assault at once. Assurance was passed to the broken troops 
that the enemy's attack had been a desperate attempt to cut 
their way out and not an assault they could repeat. This was 
inspiring, and the men fell into place with wonderful alacrity. 
Word was sent to Foote to form his gunboats in line and 
make a feint on the water-front. " A terrible conflict," he 
wrote, " has ensued in my absence which has demoralized a 
portion of my command, and I think the enemy is much 
more so. If the gunboats do not appear it will re-assure 
the enemy and still further demoralize our troops. I must 
order a charge to save appearance. I do not expect the 
gunboats to go into action." 

McClernand and Wallace were apprised of Smith's orders 
to assault, and directed to renew the battle in their front as 
soon as Smith began. McClernand should push his column 
clear to the river if possible. Two of the fleet ran up the 
river and began firing at long range. 

By four o'clock in the afternoon all was ready. Smith's 
active column was composed of Lauman's brigade of five 
regiments, the Second Iowa Infantry having the lead. He 
told his men what had to be done. They were soon ad- 
monished by the mingled roar of artillery and musketry on 
the centre and right. Then the column moved, with diffi- 



JO LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

culty on account of the underbrush, exposedly on account 
of the construction of the enemy's works, but directly and 
vigorously. Onward they pushed in invincible charge through 
brush and over abattis till they burst over the heights, 
carried the Confederate lines at the point of the bayonet, 
and got a secure hold inside the entrenchments. This was 
the key to Ft. Donelson. 

All around those long lines it " vollied and thundered." 
Smith's splendid assault was ably seconded by the centre 
and right. Grant had, with wonderful foresight, arranged it 
so as to support all the points where progress appeared. 
Artillery and fresh troops were at the back of those who had 
won any decided ground. Thus every foot of advance was 
assured by nightfall, and the beaten and fatigued troops of 
the morning had recovered lost ground, lost guns, lost spirits. 

" Fighting only for nightfall " was Grant's remark, as he 
saw that the enemy grew less desperate. One hour more of 
daylight would have won the great victory of the next day. 
The darkness found the Federal army full of hope, and de- 
termined to crown their efforts with still greater glory, when 
sunrise should permit. All lost ground had been regained, 
and every hold was firm. A day had been won after a day 
had been lost. Grant's appearance on the field was the begin- 
ning of order and successful " forward march." That night he 
slept in a negro hut. Smith's men lay on their arms. They 
must hold the frozen ground they had won at all hazards. 

Inside the fort, Floyd called a council of war. It was a 
remarkable scene. He broached the propriety of surrender. 
A majority sentiment favored the act. Buckner said he could 
not hold out half an hour against Smith. Then Floyd pro- 
posed to escape in person, fearing the consequences of becom- 
ing a prisoner on account of the prejudices which his previous 
political career might have engendered. So he turned the 
command over to Pillow. But Pillow was no better off in this 




I 



72 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

respect, he thought, than Floyd. " There are no two men," 
he declared, " in the Confederacy the Yankees would rather 
capture than themselves." He therefore hastily passed the 
command to Buckner. These two worthies then took posses- 
sion of two steamboats, and with a small brigade of troops 
stole away from their comrades. Col. Forest with a regiment 
of cavalry made his way out by the river road. 

Buckner, whose soldierly instincts did not permit him to 
avoid the fate reserved for his troops, called for a bugler, and 
wrote a note to Grant for an armistice and a commission to 
arrange terms of surrender. This was sent out under a flag of 
truce. 

Before retiring for the night, Grant's orders had been 
passed out for an early attack. He therefore replied to him 
in the language which was soon to be on the lips of every 
friend of the Union cause, and which has ever been associated 
with his name. " No terms other than an unconditional and 
immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move 
immediately upon your works." 

This bristling answer brought a hasty reply : " The disposi- 
tion of forces under my command, incident to an unexpected 
change of commanders and the overwhelming force under your 
command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of 
the Confederate arms yesterday, to accept the ungenerous and 
unchivalrous terms which you propose." 

Grant rode directly to Buckner's headquarters, where the 
terms of " unconditional surrender " were construed so as to 
allow the officers to retain their side arms and the men their 
personal baggage. Alluding to Grant's inferior force at the 
beginning of the attack Buckner said : " Had I been in com- 
mand you would not have reached Ft. Donelson so easily." 
Grant's reply was : " If you had been in command I would 
have waited for reinforcements and marched from Ft. Henry 
in greater strength ; but I knew that Pillow would not come 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 73 

out of his works to fight, though I thought he would fight 
behind them." 

The fruits of this splendid strategy and incomparable per- 
sistency on the part of General Grant was 14,623 prisoners, 
17 heavy guns, 48 field-pieces, 20,000 stand of small arms, 
3000 horses and a large quantity of military stores. 

As an instance of the favorable impression Grant made on 
his foes, when a few days afterward Buckner, with his brigade, 
was on board of a steamer bound for the North, he asked 
Grant to come aboard and look at them. The prisoners 
crowded around their captor. Buckner addressed them to the 
effect that General Grant had behaved kindly toward his foes, 
and that if ever the fortune of war turned they should show 
him and his men equal magnanimity. 

On the last day of the fight Grant had twenty-seven thous- 
and men ready for battle. He had but eight batteries of light 
artillery, a less number than the guns he captured. His 
losses were two thousand and forty-one in killed, wounded and 
missing. The Confederate loss, other than prisoners, was 
estimated at two thousand five hundred killed and wounded. 

On this memorable 16th of February, 1862, the very con- 
servative Halleck telegraphed Grant " not to be too rash," and 
then followed other word about precautions as to gunboats, 
etc. He wrote no congratulations to the victor, but three 
days afterward (Feb. 19th) sent word to Washington, congratu- 
lating Smith for " his bravery, which turned the tide and 
carried the enemy's outworks. Make him a major-general. 
You can't get a better one. Honor him for this victory and 
the whole country will applaud." In contrast with this let 
Smith himself speak. General Buckner congratulated him on 
the morning of the surrender for his gallant charge. The 
brave old officer said : " Yes, it was well done considering the 
smallness of the force that did it. No congratulations are due 
me. I simply obeyed orders." 



74 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Halleck's nomination of Smith was fatal to a deserving sol- 
dier. The Secretary of War had a better appreciation of the 
situation. Grant was recommended for a major-generalcy of 
volunteers, and Lincoln nominated him the same day. The 
Senate confirmed the nomination instantly, and a whole 
country did applaud. The next day, February 20th, Secretary 
Stanton wrote to the country as follows : 

" We may well rejoice at the recent victories, for they teach 
us that battles are to be won now and by us, in the same and 
only manner that they were won by any people or in any age 
since the days of Joshua — by boldly pursuing and striking the 
foe. What under the blessing of Providence I conceive to be 
the true organization of victory and military organization to 
end this war, was declared in a few words by General Grant's 
message to General Buckner : ' I propose to move immediately 
on your works.' " 

Says Badeau : " The consequences of the capture of Donel- 
son were greatly superior to any good fortune which had at 
that time befallen the national arms, and were hardly sur- 
passed in a purely military point of view by the results of any 
operation of the Avar. The great Confederate line had been 
penetrated at the centre, its extremities were both turned, 
while the region behind was uncovered. The whole of 
Kentucky and Tennessee at once fell into the possession of 
the National forces : the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers 
were opened to national vessels for hundreds of miles ; Nash- 
ville, the capital of Tennessee, and a place of immense stra- 
tegic importance, fell ; Bowling Green had become untenable 
as soon as Donelson was attacked, and was abandoned on 
Feb. 14th, while Columbus on the Mississippi was evacuated 
early in March, thus leaving that river free from the Confeder- 
ate flag from St. Louis to Arkansas. 

" The country was unacquainted with military science at 
this time ; and as city after city fell, and stronghold after 



FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 75 

stronghold was abandoned — all legitimate consequences of 
the fall of Donelson — the national amazement and gratifica- 
tion knew no bounds. The effect on the spirit of the people 
was indeed quite equal to the purely military results. This 
was the first success of any importance since the beginning of 
the war. An inferior force had marched boldly up to a 
strongly fortified post, and for three days besieged an army 
larger than itself; then after being reinforced it had not only 
defeated the enemy in the open field, converting what had 
been nearly a disaster into brilliant victory, but compelled the 
unconditional surrender of one of the largest garrisons ever 
captured in war. These were considerations which naturally 
enough elated and cheered the country, and absolutely in- 
spired the army, depressed before by long delays and defeats 
on many fields. The gratitude felt toward Grant was com- 
mensurate with the success. He stepped at once into a national 
fame." 

The silent man's fame was on every tongue. " U. S." had 
far more significance than the " Uncle Sam " of the West 
Point class-room. It was woven into songs, into platform 
speeches, into street hurrahs and army cheers, as " United 
States " and " Unconditional Surrender." In a day Grant had 
become the hero of a war, and the occupant of a high and 
glorious place in the affections of his countrymen. People 
by the million hailed with joy the man and the movement 
which after so many weary months had given a victory so 
overwhelming and important that it became the harbinger of 
ultimate triumph for the republic. It was a victory of such 
dimensions as to attract world-wide consideration ; and it 
settled in the American mind the fact that a new man was on 
the stage, and a new era had begun. Flags waved from every 
house ; hymns were chanted in every church ; guns boomed 
from decks and fortifications ; press united with pulpit to 
swell the chorus. The furore of jubilation was never equalled 



;6 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



in the memory of living men. Grant paid glowing tribute to 
all his officers and soldiers. His address contained the 
words : " The men who fought that battle will live in the 
memory of a grateful people." 




FOOTE'S FLOTILLA. 



i : , ,i ,,| ' : ': i .i ■:<■■■■■■■'■ • 



. 











CHAPTER V. 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 



THE fall of Donelson told heavily on the fortunes of the 
Confederacy. Said Forrest, a Southern General : 
" Grant landed with a petty force of fifteen thousand men in 
the very centre of a force of nearly forty -five thousand, having 
interior lines for concentration and command, by railway at 
that, and was able to take two heavy fortifications in detail, 
and place hors de combat nearly fifteen thousand of the 
enemy." 

Donelson had an equal effect on foreign feeling and in shap- 
ing diplomacy abroad. Europe was compelled to forbear 
from wholesale depreciation of the Northern campaign, and to 
study the consequences of so significant a victory. Inspiring 
Union sentiment with unbounded cheer, staggering the enemy 
in council and camp, furnishing the speech of the common 
people with new terms that became vernacular and further 
earnests of victory, men began to ask, " Has the appointed 
deliverer come ? " The reaction of public sentiment was nota- 
ble, and the emergency of long discouragement was met. At 
Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson Grant's guiding principle was : 
" Having assumed the offensive, to maintain it at all hazards." 
" To take every precaution possible for full support of all under 
command." "Begin the fighting" and " Never to scare!' 

Donelson was full of risk. To boldly undertake an assault 
on a strong natural fortification that was aided by great mili- 
tary preparation, with less troops than were inside for defence, 
was in violation of all example and advice in war. If a mis- 

79 



80 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

take, it was a glorious one. And again, if a mistake, then, as 
Turenne says, " when a man has committed no mistakes in 
war he could only have been engaged in it a short time." The 
more of such blunders the better. 

General Scott had said : " I don't understand this war. I 
never knew a war of this magnitude that did not throw to the 
surface some great general. We have had splendid fighting, 
but no damage has been done. Both armies have drawn off 
in good order at the close of a conflict, ready to begin the 
next day. Such fighting must be interminable. Somebody 
must be destroyed. The enemy must be spoiled, his means 
of warfare taken from him. I must make an exception in 
favor of that young man out West, He seems to know the 
art of damaging the enemy and crippling him." 

The confederate General Johnston, realizing when it was too 
late that the South had received a fatal blow through his 
policy of dispersion, set about to concentrate his broken and 
scattered forces. He collected at Murfreesboro an army of 
possibly twenty thousand men, his object being to co-operate 
with Beauregard in defending the Mississippi Valley and the 
railroad system of the Southwest. This required the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of a new defensive line, of which 
Island No. IO and Murfreesboro at first, and Corinth and 
Chattanooga afterward, became the principal points. 

If the reader will now take a map and see how far this line 
was south of the splendid line stretching from Columbus, on 
the Mississippi, to Bowling Green, Ky., which the capture of , 
Ft. Donelson broke, he will get an idea of the wonderful 
extent of territory which that fort protected and which was 
lost by its fall. 

Before the fall of Donelson (Feb. 16th) Grant was assigned 
to the new military district of West Tennessee, and Brigadier- 
General William T. Sherman succeeded him in the command 
of the District of Cairo. Their first official intercourse oc- 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 



81 



curred during the siege of Donelson, when Sherman forwarded 
troops and supplies to Grant with extraordinaiy dispatch. 
Though Grant's senior, he wrote : " I will do everything in 
my power to hurry forward your reinforcements and supplies. 
And if I could be of service myself, would gladly come, with- 
out making any question of rank with you or General Smith." 
After the fall of Ft. Donelson, Sherman congratulated Grant 
on his success, and Grant replied : " I feel under many obli- 
gations to you for the kind terms of your letter, and hope 
that should an opportunity occur, you will earn for yourself 
that promotion which you are kind enough to say belongs to 
me. I care nothing for promotion so long as our arms are 
successful, and no political appointments are made." Thus 
began a friendship between these two great men which ever 
after grew warmer and assured that co-operation in great mili- 
tary enterprises which eventuated in the most brilliant and 
pronounced successes of the war. 

Coincident with the fall of Donelson was that favorable 
movement in North Carolina by General Burnside, which 
resulted in the taking of Roa- 
noke Island and the permanent 
lodgment of the national forces 
in the soil of that State. And 
beyond the Mississippi the tide 
of military affairs took a decided 
turn. The Confederate General 
Price had virtually held Mis- 
souri. On February 18th, Gen- 
eral Curtis drove him into Ar- 
kansas. " The army of the South- 
West is doing its duty nobly. 
The flag of the Union is float- 
ing in Arkansas," were Halleck's words to the Secretary of 
War. 

6 




GENERAL BURNSIDE. 



82 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 




GENERAL CURTIS. 



On February 22d Congress ordered the illumination of the 
Capitol and public buildings " in honor of the recent victo- 
ries of the army and navy." The 
Congress adjourned for the day. 
It was made a day of general con- 
gratulation in association with the 
memory of Washington and " of 
the triumph of the Government 
which his valor and wisdom had 
done so much to establish." 

And now, where was Grant? In 
spite of Halleck's conservative dis- 
patches " to move only with the 
greatest caution," and to do, or 
rather not to do, other foolish 
things, Grant, on February 21st, ordered Gen. C. F. Smith 
to take and hold Clarksville, fifty miles above Donelson. 
Cullum at Cairo was informed of this fact, and of his 
(Grant's) proposition to capture Nashville. On the 24th 
Smith was reported in possession of Clarksville with four 
regiments, and General Halleck's pleasure was asked. On 
the 25th Grant reported that Nelson's division of Buell's army 
had arrived at Nashville, and that the Confederates had fallen 
back to Chattanooga, instead of to Murfreesboro. " I shall 
go to Nashville immediately, in person, unless orders come to 
prevent it. I am getting anxious to know what the next move 
is to be." Grant was bound to be master of the strategic situ- 
ation, and he knew the value of every moment of time. 

He made his visit to Nashville and returned on the 28th, 
reporting that the enemy had fallen back on Chattanooga or 
Decatur, and that Buell had called Smith from Clarksville to 
his assistance. On the same day came a dispatch from Halleck. 
It read : " It will be better to retreat than to risk a general 
battle. Avoid any general engagement with strong forces." 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 83 

The whole command was, at Halleck's request, moved from 
the Cumberland back to the Tennessee, with a view to an 
expedition up the latter river to Eastport and even to Corinth. 
Grant received this word on March 2d. On March 4th his 
army was in motion for the Tennessee, and he himself was 
back at Ft. Henry. 

Now comes an episode which shows what General Grant, 
an officer without political influence, and whose promotions 
and genius were eclipsing those older and politically stronger 
than himself, had to contend with. On March 3d, without 
previous explanation or intimation, Halleck sent this to Wash- 
ington : " I have had no communication with General Grant 
for more than a week. He left his command without my 
authority and went to Nashville. His army seems to be as 
much demoralized by the victory of Donelson as was that of 
the Potomac by the defeat of Bull Run. It is hard to censure 
a successful general immediately after a victory, but I think he 
richly deserves it. I can get no returns, no reports, no infor- 
mation from him. Satisfied with his victory he sits down and 
enjoys it, without any regard to the future. I am worn out 
and tired by this neglect and inefficiency. C. F. Smith is 
almost the only officer equal to the emergency." 

On March 4th Grant received orders from Halleck to place 
Maj. -General Smith in command of the proposed expedition, 
and to remain himself at Ft. Henry. To this Grant replied : 
" Troops will be sent under Smith as directed. I had pre- 
pared a different plan, intending to send Smith to Paris and 
Humboldt, while I commanded the expedition against East- 
port, Corinth and Jackson. I am not aware of ever having diso- 
beyed any order from your headquarters. Have reported 
almost daily the condition of my command and every position 
occupied. You may rely on my carrying out your instruc- 
tions in every particular to the best of my ability." 

On the 6th of March Halleck dispatched : " McClellan 



84 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

directs you to report to me daily the number and position of 
your forces. Your neglect of repeated orders to report the 
strength of your command has created great dissatisfaction 
and seriously interfered with military plans. Your going to 
Nashville without authority, and when your presence with 
your troops was of the greatest importance, was matter of very 
serious complaint at Washington, so much so that I was 
advised to arrest you on your return." 

To this Grant replied on the same date : — " I did all I could 
to get you returns of my strength. Every move I reported 
daily to your chief of staff, who must have failed to keep you 
properly posted. I have done my best to obey orders and 
carry out the interests of the service. If my course is not sat- 
isfactory, remove me at once. I do not wish in any way to 
impede the success of our arms. I have averaged writing 
more than once a day since leaving Cairo to keep you 
informed, and it is no fault of mine if you have not received 
my letters. My going to Nashville was strictly, intended for 
the good of the service and not to gratify any desire of my 
own. Believing sincerely that I must have enemies between 
you and myself who are trying to impair my usefulness, I 
respectfully ask to be relieved from further duty in the depart- 
ment." 

This was followed by another rebuke from Halleck, and 
another request from Grant (March 9th) " to be relieved from 
duty." On the 1 ith Grant again wrote asking " to be relieved 
from further duty until I can be placed right in the estimation 
of those higher in authority." On the 13th Halleck wrote: 
" You cannot be relieved from your command. There is no 
good reason for it. I am certain that all the authorities at 
Washington ask, is that you enforce discipline and punish 
the disorderly. Instead of relieving you, I wish you as soon 
as your new army is in the field to assume command and 
lead it on to new victories." 



SHILOH — BEFORE AND AFTER. 85 

What brought about this change of tone? Halleck had been 
asked to substantiate charges at Washington. This forced 
him into an examination of Grant's conduct. He found that 
his reports had been forwarded daily, and that his visit to 
Nashville was proper, since his district had no limits. He 
therefore wrote lengthily to Washington, stating his own 
change of mind toward Grant, and fully exonerating him. 
This was on March 15th. 

This timely vindication lifted the cloud which had shadowed 
General Grant for a fortnight, but which had not interfered 
with his co-operation with General Smith. On the 9th Grant 
said to Smith, "Anything you may require send back trans- 
ports for, and if within my power you shall have it." With 
the reinforcements sent to Smith on the 1 ith Grant sent word, 
" Halleck telegraphs me that when these arrive I may take 
general direction. It is exceedingly doubtful whether I shall 
accept ; certainly not until the object of the expedition is ac- 
complished." Smith replied, " I wrote you yesterday how 
glad I was to learn from your letter of the nth that you were 
to resume your old command, from which you were so 
unceremoniously and, as I think, unjustly stricken down." 
This cordiality was striking in view of the fact that Smith had 
been commandant at West Point when Grant was a cadet. On 
mention by Grant of the delicate relationship which now 
existed between the two by reason of recent promotions, the 
chivalric Smith replied, " I am now a subordinate and I know 
a soldier's duty. I hope you will feel no awkwardness about 
our new relations." Smith was sixty years old, and as faithful 
and gallant an officer as ever drew sabre. The exposure he 
underwent at Donelson brought on an illness which proved 
fatal the next summer. 

Halleck was extremely cautious about this expedition up 
the Tennessee. " Don't bring on a general engagement at 
Paris " he wrote to Grant. " If the enemy prove strong, fall 



1 



86 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



back. These orders must be strictly obeyed." The opera- 
tions brought no vivid results. Smith returned to Pittsburg 
Landing, which place he selected to hold for the purpose of 







utfrvv 



PITTSBURG LANDING. 



awaiting the Confederate policy of concentration now rapidly 
unfolding. It is on the west side of the Tennessee river, just 
north of the southern boundary of the State. In itself it had 
no significance, and even the name has given place to Shiloh 
in war history, the latter spot being the scene and centre of 
the battle which had Pittsburg Landing for a base of opera- 
tions. 

Nine miles further down the river is Savannah, a small town 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 



87 



on the opposite, or eastern side. To this point General 
Grant moved his headquarters on assuming command of the 
new field and the new movement. It did not take long to 
discover the Confederate policy. It was to form another line 
across the country, with the left resting on Memphis and the 
right on Chattanooga. This line corresponded very nearly 
with the southern boundary of the State of Tennessee. It 
was not so long as the former line from Columbus to Bowling 
Green had been. A railroad ran east and west its whole 
length, and from Iuka to Chattanooga it followed the course 
of the Tennessee river. It was stronger in every respect than 
the former, commanded the southern termini of all the railroads 
running northward, and effectually prevented the invasion of 
Mississippi and Alabama. To establish and defend this line 
was now a supreme object with the Confederates. 

Grant assumed command of operations on March 17th, T862, 
at Savannah. He chose the spot on the east side of the river 
in order the better to keep up communication with Buell in 
the direction of Nashville. He 
found Hurlbut and Sherman at 
Pittsburg Landing with the new 
regiments which had been sent up 
from Cairo. Lewis Wallace's divi- 
sion was at Crump's Landing, a 
short distance below. Smith's and 
McClernand's divisions, the oldest 
and best in the army, were at Sav- 
annah. Buell had been ordered 
from Nashville by way of Columbia. 
Grant quickly took in the situation. 
He saw that the very line which the Confederates sought 
to establish and hold was the best for Federal operations in 
Alabama and Mississippi. It virtually commanded the Ten- 
nessee river, and would eventually command the Mississippi 




GEN. BUELL. 



88 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

river as far as Vicksburg perhaps. The railroads running 
from the north to Memphis, La Grange, Corinth, Eastport, 
Decatur, and Chattanooga, would facilitate operations if held 
by Federal troops. By means of them, reinforcements and sup- 
plies could be expeditiously sent. Corinth, the crossing-place 
of the two great railroads that traverse the South and connect 
the Gulf and the Mississippi with the easterly southern regions, 
was the grand strategic point on this line. It was the Con- 
federate base of operations. They would fight desperately to 
hold it. They could attack vigorously from it. They had 
resolved not to repeat the mistake they had made on their 
Northern line, to wit, not concentrating early and formidably at 
Donelson and Henry. Therefore they were, and had been for 
some time, directing every energy to throwing a powerful army 
into Corinth, and were even now ready to assume the offensive. 
Grant saw that his safety depended on rapid and close con- 
centration. It would not do for him to repeat the error of the 
Confederates at Donelson. Ratifying the selection of Pitts- 
burg Landing by Smith, he ordered Smith's and McClernand's 
divisions thither from Savannah. Lewis Wallace was consid- 
ered as within supporting distance at Crump's Landing. Buell 
was coming, all too slowly to be sure, from Nashville with 
his much-needed command of forty thousand men. 

Pittsburg Landing was on the side of the river next the 
enemy. It was therefore a dangerous place to be. But, as 
against this, it afforded opportunity for moving out boldly 
to battle, and as a unit, should it be desirable to assume the 
offensive. On account of the contour of the country, Owl 
Creek in front, and Lick and Snake Creeks on the flanks, all 
of which were difficult to pass when the water was high in 
the Tennessee river, it was a place which could be easily 
defended. 

Buell was moving veiy slowly and Grant became anxious. 
Though his march from Nashville began on March 15th, he 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 89 

was twenty-three days in reaching the Tennessee river, a 
distance of one hundred and twenty miles. Grant kept urging 
haste through Halleck at St. Louis, who held general com- 
mand, but labored under all the disadvantages of conducting 
active and critical field operations at a distance of five hundred 
miles from headquarters. Perhaps Buell did not know of 
Grant's emergency, nor of the fact, then clear to the officers at 
Pittsburg Landing, that the Confederates, already in force at 
Corinth under Beauregard, had determined on an aggressive 
policy. Polk, at Island No. 10, had been ordered to send two 
of his strongest divisions down to Corinth ; Bragg's fine 
corps, said to be " the best troops in the Confederacy," was 
brought up from Mobile and Pensacola, and Johnston's army, 
consisting of Hardee's corps and Breckinridge's division, was 
brought by rail from Murfreesboro 
and Chattanooga. In addition, the 
Governors of Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee had 
been called upon for volunteers, and 
these were hastening to Corinth. 
Though Beauregard was the ruling 
spirit, Johnston was the senior officer 
in command. 

Buell's delay became known to the 

r r 1 ^1 , ,, . , GEN. HARDEE. 

Confederates through their scouts and 

spies. They resolved to take advantage of this, and to move 
on Grant at Pittsburg Landing ere he could be reinforced. 
Halleck's instructions to Grant still continued positive not to 
risk a general engagement till Buell's arrival. It is needless 
to say that the situation was growing more critical every day, 
and that the Federal army could not help risking an engage- 
ment very soon, all orders to the contrary notwithstanding. 
With Grant it was not a question of an engagement, but who 
should make the move first. In all his dispatches to Halleck, 




9° 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



he urged prompt reinforcement "for," said he, "the enemy are 
already from sixty thousand to eighty thousand strong, and are 
concentrating as rapidly as we are here." 

On March 23d, he wrote to Smith, " Carry out your idea of 
occupying, and particularly fortifying, Pea Ridge ; I do not hear 
one word from St. Louis. I am clearly of the opinion that the 
enemy are gathering strength as rapidly as we are, and the sooner 
we attack the easier will be the task of taking the place. If Rug- 
gles is in command it would assuredly be a good time to attack." 

There was not much time to wait. Confederate skirmishers 
were in front of the Federal forces on April 2d, and in con- 
siderable force. On the 4th, the enemy felt Sherman's front, 










PICKETS ON DUTY. 



\\W/.y£ 



but without effect. On the 5th, Grant rode out to Sherman's 
lines to consult. They agreed that it was not the enemy's 
design to attack immediately. But in this they were mistaken. 
The reconnoissance of the previous day was really the begin- 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 



91 



ning of the celebrated battle of Shiloh. (Shiloh Church was 
just on the edge of the Federal lines, about two and one-half 
miles S. W. of Pittsburg Landing). 

As Grant was riding back from the front to Pittsburg Land- 
ing on the very rainy night of the 4th, his horse slipped and 
fell on him, severely contusing him. This lamed him and 
gave him great pain and inconvenience for several days. It is 
on chis circumstance that sensational newspaper reporters 
doubtless based their heartless story that Grant was drunk 
and thrown from his horse at the battle of Shiloh. Once for 
all as to his habits in this respect, there never has been a story 
respecting his drinking, no matter how persistently or fiend- 
ishly circulated, that has not been entirely exploded, and the 
unqualified judgment of the purest and best to-day is that he 
was far more abstemious than army officers in general, and 
never addicted to injurious use of spirits. 

On the same day Lewis Wallace reported eight Confeder- 
ate regiments of infantry and twelve hundred cavalry at 
Purdy, a short distance away, and an equal, if not larger force 
at Bethel, four miles beyond. Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, in com- 
mand of Smith's division, was 
ordered to hold himself in readi- 
ness to support Lewis Wallace. 
Sherman was similarly notified as 
well as General Hurlbut. On April 
5th, Nelson arrived with his column, 
Buell's advance, at Savannah and re- 111 
ported to Grant. He was ordered 
to a point four miles from Pittsburg 
Landing, on the east side of the 
river. The country between Snake 
and Lick Creeks, whose mouths are 
three miles apart, was thickly wooded, with here and there culti- 
vated patches. Next to the river it was bluffy. These creeks 




GEN. LEW WALLACE. 



9 2 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



were both full and completely protected the flanks. Owl 
Creek, covering part of the front, was also full. The Federal 
line faced mainly south and west. Any Confederate attack 
must be wholly in front. Sherman was on the right and near 
Shiloh meeting-house. His division reached from the Purdy 
to the Corinth road. On his left and rear was McClernand and 
further to the left was Prentiss. Back of them and on an 
inner line were Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace. The entire 
force on the field was thirty-eight thousand men. 

The attack was begun by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, at 
daybreak on the morning of April 6th, with a force of forty- 
three thousand men and fifty guns. Hardee's corps led, fol- 
lowed by Bragg's, and then by Polk's 
and the reserves under Breckenridge. 
Sherman and Prentiss received the 
Confederate onset. As soon as Grant 
heard the heavy firing, he ordered Nel- 
son to move up to a point directly 
opposite Pittsburg Landing. He then 
took a boat and left Savannah for the 
Landing and scene of conflict. On the 
way up he stopped at Crump's Landing 
to notify Lewis Wallace that the battle 
was on, and to hold himself in readi- 
Arriving at Pittsburg Landing at eight 
o'clock, he rode at once to the front. 

Both Sherman and Prentiss had thrown out double pickets 
the night before, and were therefore well on their guard against 
surprise. But they had hardly calculated on so furious and 
persistent an onset of the main body. As soon as it was 
ascertained that the movement was in earnest, word was sent 
to Lewis Wallace and Nelson, to hurry their commands up 
and to the front as fast as possible. 

The engagement soon became general and the attack deter- 




GEN. A. S. JOHNSTON. 



ness for any orders. 



SHILOH BEFORE AND AFTER. 



93 



mined. The Confederates threw their regiments in close 
order and quick succession against the Federal columns, and 
those of Prentiss showed signs of wavering. Those on Sher- 
man's left, being mostly new troops, began to give ground, 
though the General held his right and centre, near Shiloh 
Church, with great tenacity. McClernand promptly came to 
the aid of Sherman's left. Hurlbut shoved his forces up to 
Prentiss' support. W. H. L. Wallace was moved over to the 
centre and left of the line. Lewis Wallace was directed to 
push up on Sherman's right, but failed to come. 

The battle grew more furious. Grant's whole force, actually 
in line, was engaged, and against heavy odds. It is doubtful 
if any closer, harder and more stubborn fighting was done 
during the war. Sherman's left was turned, but he held his 
right to its place. Hurlbut's ranks were repeatedly broken, 
yet he reformed them and yielded only when overpowered. 
Prentiss clung a little too long, and was captured with two 
thousand one hundred men. W. H. L. Wallace was killed, 
and his division was pressed back on McClernand's left, throw- 
ing it into confusion. 

It was going sorely with the Federal forces. Many of 
them were too new for such a trial. Grant was everywhere 
on the field ordering up stragglers, reforming and sending 
into line the broken and detached bodies, seeing that supplies 
were sent where most needed. Riding out to where Sherman 
was resolutely holding his own, he complimented him for the 
stubborn opposition he was making, and it must be said that 
though repeatedly wounded, the hero of the " March to the 
Sea " never showed more conspicuously his qualities as a 
general than in this battle. 

Little by little the Federal lines fell back. They were not 
pierced, but so turned and twisted as to present many faces to 
the foe. Still, if Wallace and Nelson would only come, there 
might be hope of retrieving the day. Messengers were again 



94 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

sent Nelson, who had received orders to move at 7 A. M. did 
not start till 1 p. m. Wallace had mistaken his way, had been 
set right by McPherson, yet still delayed for unaccountable 
reasons. 

In the middle of the afternoon Buell arrived on the field in 
person and in advance of his troops. Seeing no hope of 
victory, he asked Grant what preparations he had made for 
retreating. The reply came, " I have not despaired of whip- 
ping them yet." Nelson arrived at 5 p. m. 

By 4 p. m. the Federal lines had been forced back two miles, 
into the angle between Lick Creek and the river, the left rest- 
ing on the ridge just below the Landing, the right on the 
creek a mile and a half away. Two gunboats had been 
brought to cover the left, and also a battery of volunteer 
artillery of forty guns, posted there by Col. Webster of Grant's 
staff. 

General Johnston, of the Confederate forces, had been 
killed. Beauregard succeeded to the command and forced the 
fighting hard on the receding Federal lines. But as they 
were last formed they resisted onset after onset. Before night 
closed the scene Beauregard began to see that further assault 
would only result in swelling the list of his killed and 
wounded. 

Grant rode to Sherman and told of Donelson, — how the 
armies had fought till exhausted and how the next blow would 
win. He ordered Sherman to attack at dawn in the morning. 
General Wood was reported at Savannah with another division 
of Buell's army. Grant sent word : " Come up immediately. 
Transports will be ready to bring your troops. Leave all 
heavy baggage. The enemy has fought vigorously all day. 
They are estimated at one hundred thousand men. The 
appearance of fresh troops now will have a powerful effect by 
inspiring our men and disheartening the enemy." Lewis 
Wallace made his appearance at nightfall, and was moved into 



g6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

line of battle on the extreme right where he should have been 
long before. All the divisions were rearranged and ordered 
to move at daylight. Both sides slept on their arms. 

Early on the morning of the 7th, the Federal troops began 
the battle afresh with renewed confidence and vigor. Nelson 
with his fresh troops first struck the enemy from Grant's left 
centre. The Confederate army had lost heavily — " nearly 
half in killed and wounded and from straggling," says Beaure- 
gard's report. It was fatigued too with the tremendous exer- 
tions of the day before. Still it held on stubbornly, and 
especially as the character of the attack upon it must have 
assured it that the Federals had been reinforced. The tactics 
and scenes of the day before were reversed. The Confeder- 
ates were the receding foe. Ground was lost and won several 
times. Lines were turned and zigzagged. Federal and Con- 
federate lay wounded, dying and dead together. Backward 
and still backward the resolute lines were pushed over the 
field of yesterday, and until every inch of lost ground had 
been gained. Lew Wallace's laggards fought on the right 
with a valor born of determination to redeem the reputation 
they had lost by delay. Sherman renewed the fight for Shiloh 
Church, and there reclaimed all the trophies won from the 
Federals. Buell, though at first cold toward Grant, entered 
fully into the spirit of the fight, and handled his forces with 
great ability. There was but little straggling. All were 
determined. 

As the day wore on, the national victory was more decisive. 
The repulse of the enemy became general by two o'clock, and 
by nightfall Beauregard was five miles beyond the front which 
General Grant had maintained previous to the battle of the 
first day, and in rapid retreat. Rain was falling. The ground 
was wet and slippery. The men were worn out with their 
two days of fighting. These facts saved the Confederate 
• retreat from becoming a rout, for Grant consented with the 



SHILOH — BEFORE AND AFTER. 97 

greatest reluctance to a temporary stay of his advance. As it 
was, he urged forward two brigades of Wood's division and a 
part of Sherman's to watch the enemy and press the retreat. 

The central thought of the Confederates was to destroy 
Grant's army before Buell could reinforce it. This accounts 
for their terrific concentration and desperation. They based 
their hopes, not on grand tactics, but in superior weight of 
numbers and persistency of impulse. They did their best, and 
admit in their reports that their progress was only stayed by 
the determined resistance of Grant's army, aided by the 
gunboats. 

The Confederate retreat did not cease till the army reached 
Corinth. Their dead were left to be buried by the Federals. 
Grant's entire loss was 1700 killed, 7495 wounded, 3022 
missing. Beauregard reported a loss of 1728 killed, 8012 
wounded, 957 missing. 

This battle justly ranks as one of the fiercest fights of the 
war in the West. Sherman said he did not see such fighting 
afterward, and Grant compared Shiloh with the intensity and 
stubbornness of the " Wilderness." The immediate results of" 
the battle did not amount to much. Halleck arrived on the 9th, 
and took sole command. He restrained any advance except 
behind breastworks, which at this juncture was to lose the 
moral effect of victory entirely and diminish its material effect. 

This battle of Shiloh convinced the Federal authorities, the 
Union people at home, and the armies and their officers, that 
the Confederates were in earnest in starting and carrying on 
the war. It was to be no sixty or ninety day tourney, but a 
contest prolonged and intense beyond everything yet seen. 
General Grant accepted this view of it, and was ever afterward 
actuated by the thought that to fight to hurt was the only way 
to end it. It became his policy to move directly and vigor- 
ously on opposing armies with the intention of defeating them, 
capturing them, or breaking them up. He would master great 
7 



98 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

strategic positions, but he preferred to make positions. The 
Confederates were unanimous and determined. They could 
not be met successfully with airy sentiments, over-nice man- 
oeuvres, highly refined deference, but only in the spirit and with- 
the purpose they themselves made necessary. They meant war; 
war they should have. Donelson threw them back two hun- 
dred and fifty miles. Here they were at Shiloh stronger and 
more determined than ever. Their firmness and persistence 
must be excelled, if ever a victorious end were to come. 

Deep anxiety had preceded this battle throughout the North, 
and the relief that followed was grateful The President 
issued a proclamation to the people asking them to give thanks 
for the successes of the Union armies. Then the newspapers 
fell to wrangling about the merits of the victory. Grant was 
accused of having been surprised the first day. The subject 
got into Congress and was warmly debated. Here Hon. Elihu 
Washburne came to Grant's defence, and his speech made a 
lasting impression on the country. It ended that political 
malignity which had hitherto pursued those officers whose 
preferment was the reward of merit and not the result 
of favoritism. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CORINTH AND IUKA. 

TT7HEN Halleck appeared on the field and assumed com- 
VV mand of the operations which were to succeed the 
battle of Shiloh, there was not good feeling among the army 
officers, and especially on his part toward General Grant. 
Generally the jealousies were bitter and rather of a political 
than military kind, but the feeling toward Grant seemed to be 
inexplicable except on the ground of sheer envy. 

In his work of reorganization Halleck divided the army, 
now to be called the Army of the Mississippi, into three corps, 
commanded by Pope, Thomas and Buell, with a reserve under 
McClernand, while Grant's Army of the Tennessee was dis- 
tributed between the right wing and the reserve, thus actually 
placing him under Thomas and McClernand, an act which was 
regarded as a direct snub, and a place which, by all the division 
officers, was seen to be one of demotion if not of disgrace. 
He had therefore the humiliation of witnessing the passage of 
prominent orders through his subordinates, and even of hav- 
ing his troops moved without his orders. 

The camp was filled with unscrupulous newspaper corres- 
pondents, each with a favorite officer in his mind, whose deeds 
must be extolled, all in search of the sensational, and few not 
given to exaggeration and misrepresentation. These distorted 
true situations and contributed to the bickerings, heart-burn- 
ings and jealousies. Grant had to bear rounds of abuse, for 

101 



102 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the most part without complaint or defence. He could fight 
battles with sword against an open and fair foe, but could not 
waste precious time or afford to compromise his self-respect 
in idle battles of words with secret and unprincipled enemies. 
To one who had denounced him unsparingly he did venture to 
say: " Your paper is very unjust to me, but time will make it 
all right. I want to be judged by my acts." 

In noting his disposition and demeanor amid these rival- 
ries and daily attacks on character, another correspondent 
says : " When the army began to creep forward I messed at 
Grant's headquarters with his chief of staff, and around the 
evening camp-fires I saw much of the General. He rarely 
uttered a word on the political bearings of the war ; indeed, 
he said little on any subject. With his eternal cigar and his 
head thrown to one side for hours, he would silently sit before 
the fire or walk back and forth with his eyes on the ground. 
At almost every general headquarters one heard denunciation 
of rival commanders. Grant was above this mischievous, foul 
sin of chiding. I never heard him speak unkindly of a brother 
officer." 

Nor was Halleck's method of handling the army calculated 
to give a peaceful turn to affairs. The sentiment was largely 
abroad among both officers and men, that the fruits of the 
victory of Shiloh were being lost by failure to make a bold 
push after the retreating Confederates. To lose time was to 
give them opportunity to strengthen Corinth and stand boldly 
again in the way of Federal advance. To move promptly was 
to make sure of this strategic point almost without serious 
engagement, considering the then shattered condition of the 
Confederate forces. 

But as open expression of this sentiment would have 
appeared like insubordination, there was surface acquiescence 
and as much rivalry in promptly executing Halleck's orders 
as if all had been in accord with them at heart. There was to 



CORINTH AND IUKA. 103 

be no vigorous pursuit, but an approach to Corinth only by 
slow steps and amid painful precautions. The ways were to 
be carefully chosen and fortified, the approaches fully mapped 
and studied. Everything was to be done on the basis of regu- 
lar siege operations and in accordance with approved engineer- 
ing formula. Reinforcements and materials of all kinds were 
hurried from the North ; for, owing to misconception of the 
entire situation, Shiloh was for a long time regarded rather as 
a defeat than a splendid victory. Thus Halleck's force was 
soon swelled to something like one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand men, and yet he ventured nothing against a broken foe, 
except under cover of entrenchments and slow siege approaches 
to Corinth. 

He consumed six weeks in digging and shoveling his way 
along over a space of fifteen miles, the enemy all the while 
failing to make a single offensive movement, but were, on the 
contrary, taking advantage of the time to construct defences 
far more elaborate and sturdy than those behind which Halleck 
was making his tardy advance. 

Beauregard was thought to have had from fifty thousand to 
seventy thousand men. The Federal officers were anxious to 
test the superiority of their numbers 
without so much provoking delay. 
Grant broached the opinion that Beau- 
regard was actually dividing his forces, 
with a view to marching the greater 
part away from Cornith, leaving only a 
remnant there to keep up appearances. 
All the shrewder officers coincided 
with this view. He ventured to sug- 
gest to Halleck that an attack on the 
Confederate left, where their defences gen. beauregard. 
appeared weakest, would turn their 
line, and that then a movement stretching toward his own 




104 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

left would enable him to sweep the field. Halleck scouted 
the idea, and intimated that Grant's opinion need not be given 
till called for. Thenceforth his mouth was sealed in front of 
Corinth, and he was more than ever the subject of misrepre- 
sentation. Galled by a condition of affairs as aggravating 
as if he had been in actual disgrace, he thought of resigning, 
and did ask for leave of absence that he might escape the 
embarrassments of his luckless position. But Sherman 
and others counselled him to remain, and fortunately for the 
country he finally concluded to do so. 

On May 30th, Halleck announced that the enemy intended 
to attack his left that morning, and his great army was drawn 
up in defence. It was only a little feint, under cover of which 
the entire Confederate force evacuated Corinth, leaving their 
wooden guns and barren defences to impose as long as pos- 
sible on their enemy. The trick was soon discovered, and the 
Federal forces marched over the harmless entrenchments into 
the deserted town. Beauregard had been striving to elude 
Halleck ever since May 9th, and had given orders for the 
work of evacuation to begin on May 20th. Ten days left the 
town empty. Soon after entering the town Grant rode out to 
the Confederate left, and fully satisfied himself that it was by 
far the weakest part of Beauregard's lines, and could have 
been easily broken by a determined assault, with the probable 
capture of a great part of the enemy's forces. 

The evacuation of Corinth settled the certainty and magnitude 
of the victory at Shiloh, though its importance could have 
been greatly augmented by a brave, persistent push on the 
part of Halleck. The Confederates abandoned the object of 
their campaign — viz., holding Corinth, the central point of 
their new strategic line, without a fight. They had fought 
for and lost Corinth at Shiloh. 

And now came another period of inaction, or rather profit- 
less action. Beauregard had a fine start southward, it was 



CORINTH AND IUKA. 105 

supposed, and along the line of a railroad. The roads were 
good and the country well watered. There was no spirited 
pursuit. Pope and Buell were sent as far as Booneville and 
Blackland, but with numbers quite too large for expedition. 
By June ioth all hope of catching up with the enemy or forc- 
ing a battle was abandoned, and the splendid army at Corinth 
was about to be severed into parts for operation against other 
points which were rapidly springing into strategic importance. 
All this took place with Vicksburg lying within easy reach 
and practically defenceless, and with Chattanooga, at the other 
end of the strategic line, which could have been taken posses- 
sion of, fortified and held, thus saving to the country the 
expense and disaster of two campaigns for its capture. 

Buell's army was sent from Corinth toward Chattanooga. 
Grant retained command of the district of West Tennessee, 
with headquarters at Memphis, which had surrendered to the 
Federal fleet on June 6th. The Confederate Bragg had suc- 
ceeded Beauregard, and was pushing his way to Chattanooga 
with a view of beating Buell in the race for this strong posi- 
tion. Early in July, General Pope was ordered to Virginia, 
and on the 17th of the month Halleck was called to Wash- 
ington, as McClellan's successor, and as commander of all the 
armies. Thus this magnificent force was dissipated in the 
face of grand possibilities, and the visions of coherent action and 
further victory which had inspired officers and men after 
Shiloh faded into nothing. 

Halleck's first order touching Grant was a snub and insult. 
His headquarters were ordered back to Corinth, and his com- 
mand tendered to Colonel Robert Allen, who declined it, 
whereupon Grant was allowed to remain. Then came further 
stripping — a " pepper-box " policy as it was called at the time. 
Four divisions of Thomas' command were ordered to Buell, 
who was slowly making his way toward Chattanooga through 
Eastport and Decatur. This subtraction of force threw Grant 



106 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

entirely on the defensive, and made it exceedingly difficult for 
him to hold Corinth and the lines of railroad which centered 
there. He was in the face of an enemy whose force equalled 
his own, and who knew he could not assume the offensive. 
Further he was open to attack in any one of three or four 
directions, and regarded the cutting of the railroad north of 
him at Bolivar or Jackson as fatal. Memphis was safe enough 
with Sherman there, and the river at that point and above 
under control of the Federal gunboats. Grant very justly 
regarded the position he was in as one of the most unsatis- 
factory and trying of the whole war. 

Leaving sufficient force at Memphis, Grant concentrated all 
the troops he could spare from guard duty at Corinth, at 
Jackson on his north, and at Bolivar on his northwest, all 
important railroad places, and the first two, centres of railway 
systems. For eight weeks he addressed himself to newly for- 
tifying Corinth on a scale suited to his small force, and to gar- 
risoning Jackson and Bolivar, all the while confronted By the 
Confederates under Van Dorn and Price, who threatened him 
continually. 

Things were not croina- well with the Union armies. In the 
East, battles had been lost, and heart-burnings and bickerings 
existed among the generals, which led to frequent removals 
and disastrous successions. Bragg was fast proving that he 
was more than a match for Buell in quick marching, for he 
not only struck Chattanooga first, which threw Buell north to 
Murfreesboro, and even to Nashville, but had actually made 
arrangements for assuming the offensive with a view of 
regaining Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, and thence 
threatening Ohio and the North. 

Van Dorn by this time, September ioth, 1862, felt himself 
strong- enough for a diversion. He sent Price with twelve 
thousand men toward Iuka, twenty-one miles east of Corinth, 
as if he were to reinforce Bragg, and with the hope that Grant 



CORINTH AND IUKA. 



107 




GEN. ORD. 



would follow, thus leaving Corinth an easy prey to his (Van 
Dorn's) forces. Grant did not fall into the trap, but without 
leaving Corinth uncovered, proceeded to defeat Price before 
he could get back to Van Dorn or 
be reinforced by him. He sent Ord, 
with about five thousand men, 
toward Iuka from the North, and 
ordered Rosecrans, who had suc- 
ceeded Pope, with about nine thou- 
sand men, to attack the place from 
the direction of Jacinto. But Ord 
and Rosecrans failed to attack si- 
multaneously as Grant had ordered 
and expected. The brunt of the 
battle fell on Rosecrans' troops, 
on the afternoon of September 
19th, and they lost a battery, with seven hundred and thirty- 
six men killed and wounded. The engagement was a sharp 
one, and the loss to the Confederates greater than that to the 
Federals, being estimated by Rosecrans at fourteen hundred 
and thirty-eight killed and wounded, and by Pollard at eight 
hundred. Rosecrans sent word at nightfall that an early 
attack must be made in the morning. Ord was urged to 
push up his column and co-operate closely. Grant fully 
expected to capture all of Price's force on the 20th. But the 
enemy slipped out of its predicament during the night, and by 
morning was in full retreat, except about one thousand, who 
became prisoners of war. Pursuit was ordered and kept up 
for some time, but was discontinued when it was found that 
Price was making his way in a circle to rejoin Van Dorn. 
Grant had to get his forces back toward Corinth, or within 
supporting distance, as quickly as possible. Rosecrans was 
back at Corinth by the 26th ; Ord was at Bolivar ; Hurlbut was 
sent toward Pocahontas, midway between Corinth and Grand 



IOS LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Junction, where Price had rejoined Van Dorn, after his cir- 
cuitous retreat, and from which point they were expected to 
move on Corinth. 

" My position is precarious, but I expect to get through all 
right " was the word Grant sent to Washington on October 
1st. The Confederates moved as if to strike Corinth on the 
north and thus cut off reinforcements from Bolivar. But 
Grant ordered Ord and Hurlbut to come from Bolivar to 
Pocahontas and thence to Corinth, so as to fall in on the Con- 
federate rear. Van Dorn pushed boldly on with a force of 
over thirty thousand men upon Rosecrans with about nineteen 
thousand. On October 2d skirmishing began. On the 3d 
battle became active, and Rosecrans was gradually forced back 
toward the fortifications of Corinth, which Grant had erected 
within the bounds of the old ones. It was now seen how 
wisely Grant had been working a month before. The enemy 
were flushed with seeming victory. They pressed hard on 
the Federals, and by nightfall had driven them within their 
fortifications. So confident were they of final victory that 
Van Dorn sent a hasty dispatch to Richmond announcing the 
capture of Corinth. They were ordered to renew the attack 
early in the morning. 

Fire was opened on the Federal lines early on the 4th. At 
half-past nine Price made a furious assault on the Federal 
centre, which was met with a storm of canister and grape, but 
not checked till it broke Davies' division and forced it back on 
the town. Rosecrans concentrated his artillery, pushed up 
Sullivan's brigade and the Tenth Ohio and Fifth Minnesota 
regiments, and finally drove the Confederates from their posi- 
tion within his lines. Meanwhile Van Dorn was leading his 
right in an assault on the Federal left. This was anticipated, 
and met with havoc to the enemy by Stanley's division and 
the heavy guns of Battery Robinet Still they held on till 
within fifty yards of the works where the rifle fire became too 



CORINTH AND'IUKA. IO9 

deadly. They retreated, but were again led forward into the 
midst of that dreadful fire. On their second retreat, the 
soldiers within the works gave pursuit, and drove them, 
broken and routed, back to the woods. They were no longer 
able to make headway and lost no time in getting off the field, 
leaving their wounded and the artillery they had captured the 
day before. The Federal loss was 3 1 5 killed, 1 8 1 2 wounded and 
230 prisoners. Rosecrans reported the Confederate dead at 
1423 with 2225 prisoners, representing sixty-nine regiments 
and light batteries. The coming of McPherson's and Hurl- 
but's columns in the rear and the splendid circle made by the 
former to get to Rosecrans' right, served to help the demor- 
alization of the Confederates. Ord pushed after the enemy 
and intercepted the retreat at the Hatchie river, capturing a 
battery and several hundred men. Rosecrans had been 
ordered to pursue also and help Ord, but his army could not 
reach the scene in time, on account of fatigue and getting on 
the wrong road. A heavy rain set in, supplies were low, and 
the art of living off the enemy's country had not yet been 
learned. So the pursuit was called off. Grant issued orders 
congratulating his officers and men for their faithfulness and 
undaunted bravery. 

Iuka and Corinth retrieved somewhat the disasters in the 
East and relieved West Tennessee from immediate danger. 
Rosecrans was made a major-general and ordered to the com- 
mand of the army of the Cumberland to relieve Buell. Grant 
did not receive the credit due him for conceiving and directing 
these important operations. He was modest, made no show 
of superiority, took no advantage of victory to further his per- 
sonal ends. He had few friends in Washington and was not 
a favorite with any correspondents. His genius was not yet 
fully understood, and his successes were yet counted as in the 
nature of accidents. He had been operating for weeks on the 
defensive, whereas he had before won his greatest victories on 



IO LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



the offensive. Yet he showed equal mastery of situations, the 
same wonderful attention to details, the clearest knowledge 
of topography and strategy, and a felicity in ordering and 
directing which was Napoleonic. 




BURYING A COMRADE AT NIGHT. 



CHAPTER VII. 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 



TO take and hold the Mississippi Valley was vital to the 
Confederacy, and equally vital to the Union. There lay 
an empire six times as large as France, through which ran the 
finest navigable water course on the globe, and over fifty navi- 
gable tributaries. Without it the Confederacy would be rent 
in twain ; and so, without it the Northwest would be hemmed 
in and crippled to ruin. 

Accordingly the Confederates early seized and fortified im- 
portant positions on the line of the Mississippi river — Colum- 
bus, Fort Pillow, Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg, Port 
Hudson. By means of the fortifications below New Orleans 
they controlled the mouth of the stream. By means of those 
at Columbus they shut off navigation from the north, up to 
within twenty miles of Cairo. And that long strategic line 
of theirs running from Columbus on the left, through Ft. 
Donelson and Ft. Henry, to its right at Bowling Green, Ky., 
gave them control of both the Tennessee and Cumberland. 

To break this, and all other strategic lines that the Confed- 
erates might form, to open, and keep open, the Mississippi, 
was the supreme object, on the part of the North, of all that 
concentration of troops, munitions and supplies at Cairo, all the 
operations conducted from that convenient base, and all the 
co-operative efforts of armies and navies below New Orleans. 

We have seen how the splendid victory of Grant at Donel- 

iii 



112 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

son, in the spring of 1862, pierced the centre of the first Con- 
federate line, how it opened the Cumberland and Tennessee 
rivers for over two hundred miles, how it rendered both 
Columbus and Bowling Green untenable, and how it redeemed, 
for the time being, the two States of Kentucky and Tennessee 
on the east, and Missouri on the west of the Mississippi. 
Columbus emptied itself upon Island No. 10, forty-five miles 
below Cairo. The army of Pope and the flotilla of Foote 
proceeded against the Island about the same time that Grant 
was gathering his forces at Pittsburg Landing, preparatory to 
Shiloh. For three weeks they battered at the stronghold 
without effect. The time was used by Beauregard in pre- 
paring Ft. Pillow, one hundred and thirty miles below Island 
No. 10, as a place of retreat. When this place was deemed 
impregnable, the Island was evacuated on April 7th, the day 
of the battle of Shiloh, and Ft. Pillow became the northern- 
most post held by the Confederates on the Mississippi. 

Ft. Pillow was covered by Beauregard's army as long as it 
retained Corinth. The Fort was invincible by way of the 
river, for Foote had steamed down to it immediately after the 
evacuation of Island No. 10, and had been bombarding it 
without effect for some six or seven weeks. But when, at the 
end of May, Beauregard was compelled to retire from Corinth, 
Ft. Pillow had to be abandoned. This left the Mississippi 
open from Cairo to Memphis, a distance of two hundred and 
forty miles, all of which was acquired within four months after 
the beginning of those operations by General Grant, which 
resulted in the victories of Donelson and Shiloh, and was the 
direct results of those victories. 

While the river was being opened from above, Farragut was 
pushing his way from below. New Orleans had been captured 
April 28th, 1862, and shortly after, a combined fleet and army 
started up the Mississippi on a grand reconnoissance. Baton 
Rouge and Natches were captured, the latter on May 1 2th, 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 



113 



just seventeen days before Halleck found out that Beauregard 
had left Corinth free for him to enter, and quite in time for his 
splendid army to have co-operated with the up-coming fleet 
against Vicksburg, as Grant had suggested it should, and as it 
would undoubtedly have done, had he been in command. 

At this time the defences of Vicksburg were slight. Only 
three Confederate batteries were in position on the bluffs 




ADMIRAL D. G. FARRAGUT. 



when Gen. M. L. Smith, under directions from Beauregard, 
took command of the place on May 12th, 1862. He worked 
rapidly, and when Farragut's fleet, under commander Lee, 
appeared on May i8th, and demanded the surrender of the 
8 



114 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

place, General Smith could well answer : " Having been 
ordered here to hold these defences, my intention is to do so 
as long as it is in my power." 

Commander Lee, judging himself too weak to attack, 
awaited reinforcements. By May 28th, ten gunboats lay 
before Vicksburg and the bombardment began. Those ten 
days of waiting had been fatal to success. Six additional 
batteries had found conspicuous places on the bluffs, and more 
were under way. From May 28th till the middle of June the 
fleet fired at intervals on the town and fortifications. On 
June 6th, Memphis fell into Federal hands after a severe naval 
engagement, in which all but two vessels of the Confederate 
fleet were either captured or destroyed by the squadron under 
command of flag-officer Davis, Foote's successor, and thus 
over two hundred miles of additional water-way were gained 
to the North. 

By the last of June, Farragut was present before Vicksburg 
with all his gunboats, and Porter with his mortar fleet. An 
infantry force of four regiments, landed from transports, under 
Gen. F. Williams, began to cut a navigable canal across the 
isthmus made by the great bend in the river at Vicksburg. 
Davis came down from Memphis with his victorious fleet. It 
was resolved to make a combined and determined effort to 
reduce the stronghold. A furious bombardment was begun 
on June 27th, and renewed on June 28th, when the lower fleet 
was put in motion. Steaming in front of the city the gun- 
boats delivered their broadsides at the batteries, while the mor- 
tar fleet filled the air with bursting bombs. For over two 
hours the gunboats raked the fortified bluffs, steaming past 
them all the while. Seven of these boats ran the gauntlet of 
Confederate fire and joined the upper fleet. The shore defences 
were not materially damaged. The line of vessels was 
reformed, and again they poured their terrible fire into the 
batteries. This was kept up, off and on, till July 15th, when 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. U ; 

a powerful Confederate ram, called the Arkansas,— afterward 
Aug. 6th, 1 862 destroyed by Porter near Baton Rouge— ran out 
of the mouth of the Yazoo river, twelve miles above, speedily 
disabled two of the Federal gunboats, and then sought pro- 
tection under the guns of Vicksburg. Knowing that his mor- 




DESTRUCTION OF THE ARKANSAS BY THE ESSEX 



tar fleet would be helpless in the presence of such a formid- 
able assailant, and feeling that the batteries, on account of 
their high location on the bluffs, could not be reduced by his 
fleet, Farragut resolved to descend the river. On the night of 
the 15th, the gunboats, which had ascended past Vicksburg, 
ran back again and rejoined the lower fleet. This changed 



Il6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

matters somewhat, and the bombardment was continued till the 
27th of July, when both fleets withdrew, leaving the Confeder- 
ates to enjoy the conviction that Vicksburg was impregnable. 

The canal proved a failure and General Williams withdrew 
to Baton Rouge. Thus ended the first attempt to take Vicks- 
burg. Its defences withstood a siege of seventy days — May 
1 8th to July 27th — without serious impairment. Though 
twenty-five thousand shot and shell were thrown from the 
Federal fleet, not a Confederate gun was known to have been 
dismounted, and the casualties were only seven killed and 
fifteen wounded. It required nothing further to prove that 
these elevated shore defences were impervious to attack by 
water. Grant had seen this all along, and had always acted 
on the principle that in order to capture them there must be a 
combined land and naval attack, or, better still, such land 
operations as would render them practicably untenable and 
their abandonment sure. Beauregard saw it with equal clear- 
ness, and hence his constant effort to keep a land army within 
supporting distance of their rear. Thus Columbus fell of itself 
v/hen Donelson was gained. Beauregard lost Shiloh and Island 
No. 10 simultaneously. Memphis fell when the Confederates 
moved from their base at Corinth. And now Vicksburg, which 
had defied the efforts of two mighty fleets, and which was the 
only serious obstacle to an open Mississippi river, must fall, if 
at all, by means of land approaches. To this mighty task 
General Grant now set his wits and turned his energy and 
resources. 

We have seen how with an inferior force, he was kept on 
the defensive by Van Dorn and Price, during September and 
October, 1862, and how he had at last freed himself from 
immediate danger by the victories at Iuka and Corinth. On 
October 26th, he intimated to Halleck the possibility of his 
being able to so shape things as to protect his strong points 
and at the same time " move down the Mississippi Centra) 



Ho LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

road and cause the evacuation of Vicksburg." On the 
previous day, October 25th, he had, in compliance with orders 
from Washington, assumed command of the Department of 
the Tennessee, which he immediately divided into four dis- 
tricts, allotting one division of troops to each. Sherman was 
assigned to the district of Memphis, with the first division ; 
Hurlbut to the district of Jackson, with the second division ; 
C. S. Hamilton to the district of Corinth, with the third 
division, and Davies to the district of Columbus, with the 
fourth division. 

The line held by Grant was that of the Memphis and 
Charleston railroad, between Memphis and Corinth, his right 
at Memphis, his left at Corinth. To the south and in front lay 
Van Dorn's and Price's forces, now (November, 1862) consoli- 
dated under General Pemberton. Pemberton's line was that 
of the Tallahatchie river, two hundred miles north of Vicks- 
burg, the real barrier to Grant's advance upon the place, and 
the real defence of the place by land. Till this force could be 
outmanceuvered or eliminated, the solution of the problem 
Grant had on hand could not even be begun. It is three 
hundred and ninety miles from Memphis to Vicksburg by way 
of the Mississippi. From Grand Junction, midway between 
Corinth and Memphis, on the railroad, it is not over two 
hundred miles in a straight line. By w r ay of the Mississippi 
Central railroad it is two hundred and five miles from Grand 
Junction to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. And from 
that point it is forty-five miles by rail, due west to Vicksburg. 

The Tallahatchie country and after it the Yazoo, is a watery 
country, abounding in intricate bayous and swamps, lined with 
timber and rank undergrowth. Pemberton's northern outpost 
was at Holly Springs, twenty-five miles south of Grand Junc- 
tion. To throw him from the line of the Tallahatchie and 
back over the country between that and Vicksburg was Grant's 
first object. 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. Up 

On November 2d, he dispatched to Washington : " I have 
commenced a movement on Grand Junction with three divis- 
ions from Corinth and two from Bolivar. Will leave here 
(Corinth) to-morrow to take command in person. If found 
practicable, will go to Holly Springs and maybe Grenada, com- 
pleting railroad and telegraph as I go." From Grand Junc- 
tion to Grenada is one hundred miles. Sherman was moved 
out from Memphis to attract the attention of the enemy's left 
on the Tallahatchie. A cavalry force was to cross from the 
west side of the Mississippi to the rear of the enemy, to 
threaten their railway communications. On November 4th, 
Grant had seized Grand Junction and La Grange, and 
announced a " moving force of thirty thousand men." 
McPherson commanded his right and C. S. Hamilton his left. 
On the 8th, he announced to Sherman that he estimated the 
Confederate strength at thirty thousand, and " felt strong 
enough to handle them without gloves ; " so the demonstration 
from Memphis was countermanded. 

The expected cavalry force from west of the Mississippi, 
some seven thousand in number, under Washburneand Hovey, 
cut the railroad in Pemberton's rear and caused him to fall 
back to Grenada, one hundred miles south of Grand Junction. 
Grant pushed to Holly Springs, and by December 3d to 
Oxford, with his cavalry facing Pemberton at Grenada. This 
was a step of fifty miles toward Vicksburg without opposition. 
But the danger of depending on a long and single railway 
for supplies now began to loom up. To meet this, Sherman 
was sent from Memphis in command of a Mississippi expedi- 
tion, which was to land at the mouth of the Yazoo just above 
Vicksburg. After establishing a base of supplies there he was 
to work his way eastward till he met Grant at Jackson. Thus 
Vicksburg was to be invested in the rear. 

But by the time (December 26th) Sherman landed from the 
transports which had been conveyed by the gunboats under 



120 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Admiral D. D. Porter, at a point twelve miles up the Yazoo, 
Grant had felt the effects of just such a blow as he all along 
feared and strove with all his power to avert. The Confed- 
erate cavalry, by a wide detour, struck his line of communica- 
tions in the rear, and on December 20th captured the garrison 
of Holly Springs, some twelve hundred men, and destroyed 
an immense amount of military stores. His communications 
were also cut further up, between Jackson, Tenn., and 
Columbus on the Mississippi. This forced him to fall back 
1 from Grenada toward Holly Springs and La Grange, subsist- 
ing on the country as he went. It was a loss of valuable time 
and failure of the plan to co-operate with Sherman by way of 
the Yazoo and in the rear of Vicksburg. But Grant had faith 
in Sherman's ability to get a foothold somewhere close to 
Vicksburg, and he lost no time in reorganizing for his support. 
On December 22d, 1862, he issued orders from his head- 
quarters at Holly Springs, dividing the troops of his depart- 
ment into four army corps as follows : — The Ninth Division, 
Brigadier- General, G. W. Morgan ; the Tenth Division, Briga- 
dier-General, A. J. Smith ; all other troops operating on the 
Mississippi below Memphis not in the Fifteenth Army Corps, 
to constitute the Thirteenth Army Corps, under Major-General 
John A. McClernand. 

The Fifth Division, Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith ; 
Brigadier-General Steele's division from Helena, Ark., and the 
force in " the district of Memphis," to constitute the Fifteenth 
Army Corps under Major-General W. T. Sherman. 

The Sixth Division, Brigadier-General J. McArthur; the 
Seventh Division, Brigadier-General I. F.Quimby ; the Eighth 
Division, Brigadier-General L. F. Ross ; the Second Brigade 
of Cavalry, Colonel A . L. Lee; Brigadier-General Davies' 
troops at Columbus, and those of Brigadier-General Sullivan 
at Jackson, Tenn., to constitute the Sixteenth Army Corps 
under Major-General S. A. Hurlbut. 



122 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The First Division, Brigadier-General J. W. Denver ; the 
Third Division, Brigadier General John A. Logan ; the Fourth 
Division, Brigadier-General J. G. Lauman ; the First Brigade 
of Cavalry, Colonel B. H. Grierson, and Brigadier-General G. 
M. Dodge's forces in district of Corinth, to constitute the 
Seventeenth Army Corps under Major-General J. B. Mc- 
Pherson. 

Having made this new arrangement of his forces, General 
Grant went to Memphis to prepare for the work before him, 
and to communicate with Sherman, who, as we have seen, was 
down at the mouth of the Yazoo. Let us see how he was faring. 
The heights or bluffs of Vicksburg extend back from the city 
in all directions a considerable distance. These were gen- 
erally fortified for miles. At the Yazoo river the bluffs break off, 
and the valley of the river is flat, marshy and intersected by 
bayous. Landing from the river was difficult. The timber on 
the slopes had been felled into dense abattis. The fortifications 
on the summits were hard to reach and well nigh impregnable. 
Sherman disembarked his forces at Chickasaw Bayou, and 
began skirmishing on December 27th. On the 28th he 
selected a point of attack over difficult ground. Pemberton 
had reinforced the Vicksburg garrison with some six or eight 
brigades of his army, for he had not followed up Grant when 
he fell back from in front of Grenada. On the 29th, Morgan's 
division of Sherman's force, strengthened by the brigades of 
Blair and Thayer, moved, under cover of a furious canonnade to 
within four hundred yards of the enemy's strong entrench- 
ments, when they met a deadly infantry fire. Still they pushed 
on till within one hundred and fifty yards, when the fire became 
so terrible that they broke, but were quickly rallied only to be 
repulsed again and again, with heavy loss in killed, wounded 
and prisoners. The attack by the forces under Morgan Smith 
on the right was equally unsuccessful. Sherman saw that 
further attempt to force those strong lines by direct attack 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 



123 



would be suicidal. He had already lost two thousand men, 
while the Confederate losses did not exceed two hundred and 
ten. He therefore gave up the impossible task, but immediately 
prepared a movement by which ten thousand men were to go 
in transports further up the Yazoo, and under cover of the guns 




ff \, ^ jg'Wg 



MAP OF VICKSBURG. 

of the navy effect a landing further in the rear of the enemy's 
fortifications. This move was set down for the night of 
December 31st, but a d^nse fog prevented it. He therefore 
dropped all his boats and forces down the Yazoo to the Miss- 
issippi, where he met McClernand who had in the meantime, 
and by virtue of his influence at Washington, gotten authority 
to command the expedition against Vicksburg by way of the 



124 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Mississippi river. McClernand ordered all the forces under 
his command to Milliken's Bend, a great elbow in the Miss- 
issippi, twelve miles above Vicksburg, where Sherman took 
control of his own corps, the Fifteenth, and General Morgan of 
the Thirteenth. 

Not until Sherman reached the Mississippi after the failure 
of the attempt on Vicksburg by way of the Yazoo, did he 
learn of Grant's compulsory retreat from in front of Grenada. 
And now Grant for the first time learned of the ill fortune that 
had overtaken Sherman. The whole scheme against Vicks- 
burg had failed, and the baffled commander must bring his 
genius to bear on some new device for its capture. 

The first move was to assume command of active operations 
in person. This became necessary for the reason that he mis- 
trusted McClernand's ability, and preferred that Sherman, in 
whom he had great confidence, should have a chance to 
redeem the Yazoo failure. But he saw no way of obviating 
all difficulties and lessening all risks except by taking direct 
control himself. 

On January 17th, having visited the fleet lying off the 
mouth of the Arkansas river with a great number of troops 
on board, and in expectation of co-operation from General 
Banks, who was operating below against Port Hudson and the 
Red River country, he wrote to Halleck that " our troops 
must get below the city (Vicksburg) to be used effectually." 
On January 20th, he returned to Memphis and gave it out 
that " the Mississippi River enterprise must take precedence 
of all others, and any side move must simply be to protect our 
flanks and rear." On the 22d, he wrote to McClernand to 
reopen the canal across the isthmus in front of Vicksburg, in 
order to change the course of the Mississippi and make a 
straight, navigable channel out of reach of the enemy's guns. 
He never lost sight of the uses that might be made of the 
Yazoo river and its passes in securing a foothold in the rear 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 125 

of the city. Said he : " The work of reducing Vicksburg, will 
take time and men, but can be accomplished." He had evi- 
dently been pondering the matter deeply, and the above was a 
conclusion as much as an expression of faith. 

And now came the work of putting his department in order. 
All unimportant points in Tennessee were abandoned. The 
heavy guns at Columbus, Memphis and Island No. 10 were 
removed so as to leave no inducement for attack by the enemy 
on the East side of the river. Young's Point opposite the 
mouth of the Yazoo, and near to Milliken's Bend, was to be 
the forming and operating point of the expedition. Halleck 
at Washington was urged to prepare all the support he could 
control. A part of the department of Arkansas was added to 
Grant's command, so that he might control both sides of the 
Mississippi. Forts Henry and Donelson were transferred to 
the Cumberland Department. On January 29th, General 
Grant arrived in person at Young's Point, and on the 30th 
assumed immediate command of the expedition against 
Vicksburg. 

During February and March, 1863, General Grant tested 
five different expeditions, three of which were designed to 
enable him to pass freely up and down the Mississippi past 
Vicksburg, and two to overcome the obstacles to the naviga- 
tion of the Yazoo presented by the batteries at Hayne's Bluff. 
The first of these was the canal across the isthmus oppo- 
site Vicksburg. It looked as though this would be suc- 
cessful, but on March 8th, the high water in the Mississippi 
broke the dams at the head of the canal, and flooded the entire 
peninsula. The canal project was abandoned. 

The second expedient was to open the bayous from Milli- 
ken's Bend through Tensas river and into the Mississippi 
near New Carthage below Vicksburg. But low water by 
April and impassable roads rendered continuation of this work 
unnecessary. The third expedient was a passage for boats by 



126 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



way of Lake Providence on the Louisiana side. This never 
found real favor and was soon abandoned. The fourth was to 
open a route to the rear of Haynes' Bluff on the Yazoo. It 
was thought this could be done by threading some of the 
narrow, tortuous passes which run from the Mississippi into 
the Yazoo. Two of these were tried by resolute commands 
supported by Porter's gunboats, but without avail. The enemy 
blockaded the passes by felling trees into them faster than 
they could be removed, and by erecting batteries at the 




REMOVING OBSTRUCTIONS. 



available bends in the sluggish streams. All these expedients 
were therefore failures in one sense. Yet by means of them 
the mind of Grant had become clear as to what would have to 
be done in order to insure success. At the very moment 
when one of less heroic mould or without his commanding 
genius would have been heart sick amid failures, he was 



PREPARING FOR VICKSBURG. 



127 



gradually rising to the height of that original and audacious 
conception which was to end in one of the grandest victories 
of the Civil War, and give him high and permanent rank among 
the great military commanders of the age and world. 




CONFEDERATE CAVALRY PICKETS. 



A 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 

T Young's Point opposite the mouth of the Yazoo the 
Mississippi turns to the northeast and flows four or five 
miles till it strikes the Vicksburg hills. These hills turn its flow 
back to the southwest, for a like distance. This sharp curve 
encloses the long narrow peninsula on the Louisiana side, 
across which two attempts to cut a canal had been made. 
Opposite the lower side of this peninsula, on the east shore of 
the river, stands the city of Vicksburg, on a rugged site where 
the cliffs rise abruptly from the water's edge to a height of two 
hundred feet. These bluffs extend from Warrenton below, to 
Walnut Hills above Vicksburg. They then turn to the 
northeast and strike the Yazoo twenty miles from its mouth, at 
Hayne's Bluff. From Hayne's Bluff, twelve miles from 
Vicksburg, to the Mississippi, the highlands were thoroughly 
fortified, and thence down the river to Warrenton, a distance of 
seven miles. 

On the river front were twenty-eight heavy guns which gave 
a plunging fire. These effectually barred all approach by water, 
for no gun in the Federal fleets could be sufficiently elevated to 
reach the batteries on the heights. At the foot of the ridges 
and along the slopes rifle pits were dug and manned. The 
mouth of the Yazoo was obstructed by rafts and chains. The 
bayous leading to the north and rear of the city were filled 
with trees cut on their banks. The bluffy condition of the 
country extends back of the city for a considerable distance. 
The ravines, slopes, and ridges, wherever practical, were 
128 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 1 29 

protected by batteries and entrenchments, so that approach by 
the land side was seemingly as impossible as that by water. 
This was the key to the navigation of the Mississippi and to 
the magnificent valley it drains. 

On January 29th, 1863, the army in the Department of the 
Tennessee numbered one hundred and twenty thousand men. 
Of this number fifty thousand were at Young's Point and 
Milliken's Bend, consisting of the Fifteenth Corps (Sherman's), 
the Seventeenth (McPherson's), and part of the Thirteenth, 
(McClernand's). St. Louis and Memphis were the bases of 
supplies. Porter's co-operating fleet numbered sixty vessels 
large and small, two hundred and eighty guns and eight hun- 
dred men'. We have seen how General Grant manoeuvred and 
experimented up till the middle of March, 1863, and how one 
after another of his projects failed. These failures made it 
apparent to him that the true line of operations against 
Vicksburg was from the South. But this presented difficulties 
which were appalling. It would necessitate the moving of 
his army some thirty or forty miles down the west bank of 
the Mississippi river and through almost impassible sections. 
The river would have to be crossed in the face of the enemy. 
He \\ ould be cut off from Porter's gunboat support, unless the 
batteries of Vicksburg could again be successfully run. The 
fleet of Farragut and the army of Banks below were held in 
check by the strong Confederate fortifications at Port Hudson. 
Worst of all the movement would put the army out of com- 
munication with its bases of supplies, and with no hope ot 
reaching them again till the circuit of Vicksburg had been 
made and the Yazoo reached. 

The scheme was hazardous, but all others had failed. The 
country was clamorous for action on the part of its armies. 
Grant was not escaping censure for slowness of movement and 
even for incompetency. McClernand was unfriendly to him, 
and a request for his removal had reached the President. But 
9 



I30 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Mr. Lincoln stood in the breach. "I rather like the man" 
(Grant), said he, " and I think we'll try him a little longer." 

When General Grant had formulated his plan, he wrote to 
Halleck that it involved a move by way of the bayous and 
regular road from Milliken's Bend to New Carthage twenty- 
three miles below, a possible running of the Vicksburg bat- 
teries by Porter's fleet, a crossing of the Mississippi to War- 
renton or Grand Gulf, a move directly upon Jackson, with 
perhaps a battle for that point, and, if victorious, a firm foothold 
in the rear of Vicksburg. " I will," said he, " keep my army 
together and see to it that I am not cut off from my supplies 
or beat in any other way than a fair fight." 

The plan did not find favor among the officers of his 
command. They almost to a man advised against it as im- 
practicable. It was not only full of the dangers of defeat, but, 
in that event, of annihilation of the entire army. Sherman, 
Grant's most faithful and best trusted lieutenant, boldly 
announced his views, and urged on his chief the propriety of 
going back to Memphis and moving to the coveted rear of 
Vicksburg by way of Grand Junction and Grenada, as Grant 
had attempted to do before. But while all found the plan 
counter to their judgments, they acquiesced as became good 
soldiers, and did their best to vindicate the wisdom of Grant's 
unalterable determination. The order to move hushed all 
dissatisfaction and criticism, and cemented opinion as firmly 
as if the pre-judgment had been unanimous. The perils of 
the undertaking conduced to harmony and generous rivalry. 
To stand together lest all should fall became a common resolve. 
And then if victory came it would be a most glorious one. 
Not to have aided in its purchase would be a shame. To have 
contributed to it would be a lasting honor. 

On March 29th, 1863, the movement began. The Thirteenth 
Corps started for New Carthage. After a terrible march it 
arrived only to find its destination almost submerged. It was 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 



131 



forced to go to Perkin's, twelve miles below and fully thirty- 
five miles from its starting point at Milliken's Bend. It was 
followed by the Seventeenth Corps, under McPherson. 
Simultaneously with this move Col. R. H. Grierson was sent 




GRIERSON'S CELEBRATED RAID. 



with a force of seventeen hundred cavalry from La Grange on 
his celebrated raid to test Grant's theory that the Confederacy 
was " a hollow shell with all its substance drawn to the 
outside." He traversed Mississippi without much opposition, 
destroying stores and bridges, and tearing up railroads. After 
traveling six hundred miles in sixteen days, capturing five hun- 
dred prisoners and three thousand stand of arms, killing and 
wounding over one hundred Confederates, destroying fifty miles 



132 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

of railroad and telegraph, he arrived at Baton Rouge on May 2d, 
with a loss of three killed, seven wounded and nine missing. 

Grant now looked to Admiral Porter for promised co-opera- 
tion. He must have gunboats for protection, barges in which 
to ferry his troops to the east side of the Mississippi, and since 
it was nearly impossible to get supplies by land from Mil- 
liken's Bend, transports laden with stores. But how were these 
helpless vessels to pass the Vicksburg batteries ? The trans- 
ports were loaded, and then protected with hay and cotton 
bales. They were manned by volunteer crews, and on the 
night of April 16th, the steamers, each towing a fleet of barges, 
steamed down to the great bend, preceded by the iron clad 
boats. Grant remained on a transport at the Bend to watch 
the operations. The night was dark. Porter led the way on 
the Benton, and reached the first battery be for", he was dis- 
covered. Then the artillery opened from uie bluffs. The 
gunboats responded with a rapid fire. Houses in the city 
were set on fire to light up the river. This made every gun- 
boat, steamer, barge fleet, and transport a target. Shot and 
projectiles of every form were rained on them from the forts, 
and some were badly disabled. One transport was set on fire 
by a. shell and burned. All in all, the attempt was successful, 
and on the night of April 22d, it was repeated with a larger 
number of vessels and tows, most of which got past the 
batteries with slight injury. 

These daring manoeuvres secured to General Grant the 
supplies he needed and the co-operation of Porter's naval force 
below Vicksburg. It remained for him to select a point of 
crossing to the east bank of the Mississippi and to throw his 
army over. Neither New Carthage nor Perkin's, now held by 
his advance corps under McClernand, would make good 
starting points. They were really above the Confederate line 
of fortifications on the east side, which line may be said to have 
had its southernmost limit at Grand Gulf. Still they would do 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 



133 



if Grand Gulf could be captured and the Confederate left 
turned there. Admiral Porter urged a combined attack on it 
at once. Grant ordered McClernand to co-operate with his 
corps in barges. But there was unaccountable delay in em- 
barking, much to Grant's annoyance, for the Confederates were 
making use of every hour to strengthen Grand Gulf, a point 
fast becoming vital to them. The General, when apprised of 
the situation, resolved to push his headquarters from Milli- 
ken's Bend to Perkin's and assume direct control of the opera- 
tions. Though suffering with an outbreak of boils, he took 
to the saddle and rode forty miles to Perkin's, to deliver his 
instructions in person to McClernand. But the golden 
opportunity had fled. Though Porter attacked the Grand 
Gulf batteries with vigor, April 29th, and was supported by an 
ample force ready to land and storm the place, they were 
perched too high for his guns. Like those of Vicksburg they 
were practically out of range and invincible. 

In order to have his army well in hand and all ready for a 
speedy crossing in case Grand Gulf should fall, General Grant 
had pushed it, over very bad roads, from Perkin's to a place 
called Hard Times, twenty miles below, and opposite Grand Gulf. 
As soon as he saw the result of Por- 
ter's attack, which he witnessed from 
a tug in the stream, he signalled to be 
taken aboard the flagship. Here, 
after a personal interview with Porter, 
he requested that brave and ever wil- 
ling officer to run the Grand Gulf 
batteries that night, April 29th, while 
he pushed his land forces from Hard 
Times to De Shroon's, three miles 
below. Porter ran his fleet past with- 
out much damage, and on the morning of the 30th, found 
the Thirteenth Army Corps at De Shroon's. 




DAVID D. PORTER. 



134 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Now for a good dry point on which to land on the 
east side of the river. Bruinsburg lay nearly opposite 
him and six miles below Grand Gulf. From this point a 
good road led inland to Port Gibson, twelve miles distant. 
This then would make a good landing place. A foothold 
once secured there, the enemy's left would be completely 
turned and the problem of access to his rear would be solved, 
unless he were strong enough to yet defeat it by a pitched 
battle. Against this contingency Grant had provided in more 
ways than one. In order to provide a disguise for his entire 
movement from Milliken's Bend to De Shroon's, and for his 
proposed crossing of the river, and at the same time prevent 
the enemy from marching out of Vicksburg and concentrating 
on him after he had crossed to the east side of the Mississippi, 
he ordered Sherman to make a bold and heavy demonstration, 
simultaneously with the attack on Grand Gulf, from Milliken's 
Bend, against Hayne's Bluff upon the Yazoo, which, we have 
seen, was the extreme right of the Vicksburg fortifications, and 
the point near which Sherman had failed to get a foothold on 
his former Yazoo Expedition. Sherman seeing its importance, 
undertook the expedition with ten regiments and the portion 
of Porter's fleet still above Vicksburg. He moved so 
vigorously and made such a plausible disposition of his forces, 
that the enemy engaged him for two days, under the appre- 
hension that his attack was real. On May 1st, Grant sent him 
word that the object of the diversion had been achieved, and 
that he should desist and hasten to follow McPherson's Corps 
to Perkin's, and beyond, so as to be within reach of the head of 
the arm}* and participate in the crossing if necessary. 

Meanwhile Grant's advance was not losing a moment of 
time. He felt that amid all his obstacles, something substantial 
was being done. On April 29th, he wrote Halleck : "I feel 
now that the battle is more than half over." On the 30th he 
issued a batch of orders to all the corps' commanders to be 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 1 35 

ready for prompt movement and co-operation, and for other 
tugs with barges loaded with supplies to run the blockade. 
On the same day the Thirteenth Corps, McClernand's, and two 
divisions of the Seventeenth, were ferried across the river from 
De Shroon's, and effected a landing at Bruinsburg. Grant and 
his staff crossed early in the morning. The distance from the 
starting to the landing point was six miles, although the river 
itself is but little over a mile wide. Every available boat was 
pressed into service, and in order to get the most men over in 
the shortest time, not a tent, wagon or horse was allowed on 
board. To effect a landing, gain the highlands back from the 
river front, control the road to Port Gibson, and establish a 
base of operations, all before the enemy could become aware of 
his movement, was a matter of the greatest moment with 
General Grant. Never were the energies of an entire army 
more keenly directed to a single point, and never in a similar 
move was there heartier co-operation between land and naval 
forces. 

Before sunset of April 30th, the highlands were reached by 
the landing forces, and a strong vanguard was pushed by 
forced marches out to within four miles of Port Gibson. Here 
it struck the enemy, five thousand strong, under Bowen who, 
having discovered the crossing and knowing that, if successful, 
it would turn his flank, had marched his forces out of Grand 
Gulf toward Port Gibson to protect his left and rear. This 
was to be the battle for position which Grant had anticipated 
and for which he was now ready. All four divisions of 
McClernand's corps and Logan's division of McPherson's 
were pushed to the front. Bowen was rapidly receiving 
reinforcements from Vicksburg, so that by May 1st, he had 
eleven thousand men with him in a strong defensive position. 
The battle opened at 10 A. M. As soon as Grant heard the firing 
he started on a borrowed horse for the scene and assumed 
direct command. McClernand was pressing the enemy on their 



I36 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

left, but their right and centre were stubbornly resisting 
Osterhaus' division. It was speedily reinforced by Logan 
with two brigades of McPherson's Corps, and then began to 
gain ground. But the extreme right was the enemy's strong 
point. It was admirably protected by a sunken road and a 
deep, difficult ravine. Smith's brigade was ordered to 
Osterhaus' support, and Grant and McPherson both ac- 
companied it. Osterhaus' increased the fury of his attack 
and the fresh brigade of Smith charged across the ravine. 
This was successful. The strong right of the enemy was 
turned, and his entire line broken and swept away. Bowen 
fell back toward Port Gibson, leaving his dead and wounded 
on the field. He was closely pursued till within two miles 
of that place and nightfall called a halt. During the night he 
withdrew from Port Gibson, burnt the bridge over Bayou Pierre, 
and took position between that stream and Grand Gulf. Here 
he was joined on May 2d by Loring's division from Jackson. 
But Grant crossed a new bridge hastily thrown over the 
Bayou, and was upon them before they could resist. They 
crossed the Big Black and were ordered by Pemberton to the 
vicinity of Vicksburg. The garrison at Grand Gulf, seeing 
their rear completely occupied and covered, beat a hasty 
retreat, leaving that stronghold to the Federals. It was 
quickly occupied, and Grant transferred his base thither from 
Bruinsburg. 

The importance of a victory at or near Port Gibson was 
appreciated by both armies. It was to settle the fate of 
Grand Gulf at once, and also the success of that bold and 
brilliant move which had landed a Federal army on the left 
and in the rear of the " Gibraltar of America," as President 
Jefferson Davis had styled Vicksburg. Both Bowen and Grant 
knew the value of time and energy. The former secured all 
the reinforcements he could in the hours allotted to him. 
Grant drove his forces forward with desperate energy. 




:)m m^: .J\l4^--- . 



I38 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

His efforts were in the nature of a series of surprises. He 
never remitted pursuit, and made the object of the expedition 
speedily secure. The battle was a sharp contention, in which 
Grant had the advantage of numbers. His loss was one 
hundred and thirty killed and seven hundred and eighteen 
wounded. He estimated the enemy's loss in killed and 
wounded as equal to his own, with the addition of six hundred 
and fifty prisoners, and the capture of six field pieces. In 
their hasty evacuation of Grand Gulf the Confederates left 
behind thirteen heavy guns. 

Now that the Federal foothold was firm, General Grant sent 
orders to Sherman to push his corps down and across the 
Mississippi to his aid. He immediately disposed of the 
forces then with him so as to cover the country in his rear 
and make active demonstration on the enemy at the Black 
river crossings and at Jackson. The officers were now 
confident, the troops hardy and elated, so that there was no 
fear of lack of vigor. Word had been received below from 
Banks, that he could not be expected to reach the scene till 
after the fall of Port Hudson. This determined Grant to go 
on with the investment of Vicksburg alone. He had heard 
from Grierson's Cavalry raid, and knew that it was possible to 
live, for a time at least, off the enemy's country. He was 
therefore less anxious about supplies, although an ample 
store had been ordered to Grand Gulf. 

General Pemberton had command at Vicksburg, under 
General Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded the Department. 
Johnston was concentrating rapidly at Jackson, fifty miles to the 
rear of Vicksburg. Grant had pushed the bulk of his army 
up toward Raymond, in the direction of Jackson, and had 
possession of Clinton, on the railroad between Vicksburg and 
Jackson. His object was to keep himself as much as 
possible between Johnston's and Pemberton's forces, so as to 
prevent their union and if possible attack them separately. 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 1 39 

But he was thus exposing his communications with Grand 
Gulf. Johnston saw this, and ordered Pemberton to attack 
Grant's rear at Clinton. But Pemberton swung toward Ray- 
mond, designing to make his blow more effective. His 
misfortune was that Grant had resolved as early as May nth 
to cut loose from his base at Grand Gulf. He was now, May 
14th, marching his men with only three days' rations in their 
haversacks, and with orders to live as much as possible on the 
country. 

After a spirited fight at Raymond, Sherman was ordered to 
take the direct road to Jackson, and McPherson to take a 
northerly and parallel road. McClernand was to hold a point 
near Raymond, in supporting distance of both. On the morn- 
ing of the 14th Grant wrote Halleck : " I will attack the State 
Capitol to-day." It was the point toward which Johnston was 
rapidly hurrying his reinforcements from the south. If struck 
quickly it would prove a masterly blow. 

Sherman and McPherson moved so simultaneously that 
they reached the place at the same hour. The Confederate 
outposts were driven in, and guns were put in position to 
reply to the fire to which the Federals were now subjected. 
A rain set in which suspended the attack for two hours, but 
the time was well occupied in getting troops into position. 
Then McPherson ordered an advance, which soon became a 
gallant charge by Crocker's division. It swept the Confeder- 
ates from their outer posts, and drove them behind their per- 
manent works. Both McPherson and Sherman now drew 
their lines closer, brought their artillery to bear, and began a 
resolute attack on the defensive works. Grant, who had all 
the while been with Sherman, ordered that officer to send a 
force to the extreme right, as far as Pearl river. It did not 
return, and Grant rode to the right himself, accompanied only 
by his staff. He found the road open clear to Jackson. The 
enemy had hastily evacuated before it received the force of 



14° LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the designed blow. Grant, in company with a dozen officers, 
rode forward and entered the works and the city. His son, a 
lad of thirteen, who had accompanied his father throughout 
the campaign, spurred his horse ahead of the company and was 
really the first to enter the Capitol of Mississippi. By three 
o'clock in the afternoon both Sherman's and McPherson's 
corps were in the city and the possession was complete. 

The rapidity of Grant's march from Raymond had discon- 
certed all of Johnston's plans. He was unable to hold on till 
properly reinforced. The same rapidity carried the Federal 
army away from danger of a rear attack by Pemberton. The 
vigor of McPherson's onset had been such that Johnston was 
unable to save his artillery, and he lost seventeen pieces with 
nearly a thousand men killed, wounded and prisoners. 

The Federal loss was thirty-seven killed and two hundred 
and twenty-eight wounded. Johnston fell back northward, 
thus making the gap between him and Pemberton wider. 

When Pemberton found that Grant was already beyond 
Clinton, and as far as Jackson, and further, on the line of 
direct road from Jackson to Vicksburg, he saw that his swing 
away from his base on that road at Edward's Station was but 
to give Grant a fair chance to move directly on Vicksburg. 
So he made all haste to re-occupy the line of the road again, 
which he did, selecting a naturally strong position at Cham- 
pion Hills, nearly midway between Edward's Station and Clin- 
ton. Grant knew that it was now possible for Johnston to re- 
inforce Pemberton. So he ordered all his forces to concen- 
trate at Bolton Station, immediately in front of Pemberton's 
lines at Champion Hills. Battle must be given there and 
given quickly, before Johnston could recover from the effects 
of his retreat from Jackson and come to Pemberton's support. 

On May 16th, the two armies met, and the battle became 
hot and stubborn all along the lines, but especially on the 
Federal left. On the right, Logan carried his division- well 



142 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

around the enemy's flank and completely turned it. Orders 
were given to strengthen the Federal left and intensify the 
attack so as to give Logan time to force his advantage further. 
He did so, and the Confederates, doubled on themselves, 
broke in confusion. They retreated with the loss of over 
three thousand killed and wounded, nearly as many in pris- 
oners of war, and thirty field-pieces. The Federal losses were 
four hundred and twenty-six killed, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and fifty-four wounded and one hundred and eighty-nine 
missing. So rapidly was the pursuit pushed that the Confed- 
erate General Loring, finding himself cut off from the com- 
mand, abandoned his artillery, and, wheeling eastward, made 
a wide detour by forced marches till he reached Johnston. 
But his division was much decimated before it found a desti- 
nation. This was one of the severest battles of this campaign 
of strategy and activity ; and a most decisive one too. Only 
the celerity of Grant's movements and his wonderful ability 
to keep his corps in hand had rendered it possible. It was as 
much needed for the country as for the success of Grant's 
audacious plans, for the President, General Halleck and army 
officers everywhere, were keenly criticising the entire move- 
ment and predicting disaster. Hooker had lost at Chancel- 
lorsville. The nation was despondent and looked for deeper 
gloom when Grant should be heard from. Moreover, the 
authorities at Washington had been all the while urging him 
to wait till Banks could come up to his assistance, or to drop 
his plans and go to Banks' assistance at Port Hudson. Fortu- 
nately he was out of reach of dispatches, and away from 
criticism and clamor. He was even more guarded than usual 
in his camp counsels, never debating, seldom explaining, in 
advance. It was a time for only heroic action, and that in the 
line he had evidently studied well and from which he would 
not swerve, come what may. That it was the line of victory, 
every step of the way, thus far, had proved. 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. I43 

Grant's army pursued Pemberton's westward beyond Ed- 
ward's Station, and thence to the Big Black crossing, six miles 
beyond. Here he received Halleck's dispatch ordering him 
" to return and co-operate with Banks." He was returning 
now, but with victorious banners. No danger now of further 
rebukes, further countermands, further recalls, once the real 
situation was known at Washington and to the country. 

Pemberton crossed the Big Black with most of his army, 
but left a force on the east side to dispute the passage of the 
Federals. It was strongly entrenched, with both flanks rest- 
ing on the river, and a slough in front. By hugging the river 
and making a gallant charge on the extreme left flank, Gen- 
eral Lawler carried the whole Confederate works, capturing 
eighteen guns, and over one thousand five hundred privates 
and officers. The balance of the force escaped, burning the 
bridge, which was rebuilt that night, May 17th, by the Fed- 
erals. The same night Sherman crossed his corps by a pon- 
toon bridge at Bridgeport, a mile or two above Edward's 
Station. 

What now was the situation? On that night of May 17th 
the broken columns of Pemberton's army were rushing in 
confusion back into Vicksburg. For two weeks it had been 
marched and countermarched over the country in the rear in 
aimless adventure, had been forced into disastrous actions in 
detached parts, had failed to achieve a single hope entertained 
by its commander or by General Johnston. Pemberton clung 
all along to the thought of retaining Vicksburg. Johnston 
saw the folly of this, and after the disaster at the Big Black 
ordered him to evacuate the place and march to the northeast. 
But it was now too late for this, even if the order had found 
favor, which it did not in a council of war called by Pem- 
berton. 

Eighteen days had elapsed since Grant crossed the Missis- 
sippi and got his hold at Bruinsburg. Such had been the 



AA 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT, 



rapidity of his motions, the bravery and hardihood of his 
troops, and the originality of his schemes, that he had kept the 
Confederate armies divided, struck them both telling blows, 
and succeeded in shutting the main one up within the defences 
of Vicksburg, whence they were not to issue except as pris- 
oners of war. 

By the morning of May 18th, the Thirteenth and Seventeenth 
Corps were across the Big Black at the scene of the battle, and 
Sherman was across at Bridgeport. All were moving directly 
on Vicksburg by three roads, and all within supporting distance. 

Johnston was lying at Vernon, 
twenty miles up the Big Black, 
waiting for Pemberton to make his 
escape and join him. He had not 
yet heard of the disastrous battle at 
the Big Black crossing, the tumul- 
tuous retreat into Vicksburg, and the 
closing in of Grant's forces. 

Sherman's corps was forced along 
on the right till it struck the Benton 
road and Walnut hills on high and 
dry ground, three and a half miles 
from Vicksburg. This position over- 
looked the Yazoo river where, a month before, Sherman had 
tried to effect a foothold. It also completely cut off the Con- 
federate right at Hayne's Bluff from the strong fortifications 
of the centre. Grant was with Sherman when his corps struck 
this available position. Looking over the scene and recog- 
nizing fully the advantages secured in the short space of 
eighteen days, Sherman turned to Grant, and said : " Until 
this moment I never thought your expedition a success. I 
never could see the end clearly until now. But this is a cam- 
paign ; this a success, if we never take the town." 

And by what was that success measured? By the rapid 




GEN. JOS. E. JOHNSTON. 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. I45 

marching of three full army corps a distance of over two hun- 
dred miles inside of twenty days. By the defeat of two opposing 
armies in five successive battles. By the capture of twenty- 
seven heavy guns, sixty-one field pieces, sixty-five hundred 
prisoners, and the killing and wounding of six thousand of the 
enemy. By forcing and keeping apart two armies in a hostile 
country, which, had they been able to combine, would have 
outnumbered his own, and perhaps overwhelmed it. By start- 
ing with limited rations and light equipment, and proving that 
an invading army could live on the country. Only five days' 
rations had been issued since leaving Grand Gulf, yet the sol- 
diers had not complained of lack of subsistence. His aggregate 
losses were six hundred and ninety-eight killed, three thousand 
four hundred and seven wounded, and two hundred and thirty 
missing : a total of four thousand three hundred and thirty- 
five. All this leaves out of sight the splendid vantage ground 
gained on the Yazoo, the hopes of successful siege operations, 
the certainty of a splendid victory in the future, the moral effect 
of such victory on the armies in the East and the country in 
general. 

The army was thrown into position for prosecuting the siege. 
Sherman, on the right, had already rendered Hayne's Bluff 
untenable, and this evacuated, the Federal army found a secure 
and long-coveted base of supplies on the navigable Yazoo, near 
to the boats above Vicksburg, and in easy communication with 
the northern Mississippi. McPherson's corps occupied the 
central line of investment and McClernand's the left. Could 
Grant afford to wait for that capitulation which was sure to 
come through slow approaches and a starving out process ? 
His lines were long and at no point very strong. The enemy 
within were, he knew, in a demoralized condition. Johnston 
was behind, gathering forces as rapidly as he could, and there 
was no telling when he might make a diversion in the rear in 
order to save the beleaguered garrison. So Grant resolved on 
10 



I46 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

an early assault, if for no other purpose, to shorten his lines by 
pressing them closer up to and around the enemy. 

The assault was ordered on the afternoon of May 19th. It 
was found impossible to force the entrenchments, but the Fed- 
eral lines were drawn closer on all sides. The Fifteenth Corps 
had mainly participated, and though its loss was severe, the 
result was not without profit, for it showed the nature of the 
defences, that the Confederates had recovered their spirits and 
were determined to hold out to the last, and, most of all, that 
they were far stronger numerically than Grant, who credited 
Pemberton with fifteen thousand effective men, had supposed. 

The 20th and 2 1st of May were devoted to the comfort of 
the army. The ground was cleared for more permanent 
encampments. Supplies were brought from Chickasaw bayou. 
McClernand was ordered to establish a base for stores at War- 
renton, on the extreme left. Porter made an attack, May 2 1 st, 
with his fleet on the water batteries in front, and succeeded 
in dismounting several guns. Grant pushed his pickets and 
sharpshooters well up to the entrenchments, and gained several 
effective points for the use of field-pieces. 

By the 22d the Federals were in excellent condition for 
another offensive movement. An attack all along the lines was 
ordered for that day. Porter was asked to co-operate with his 
fleet. Early in the morning the cannonade began on the land 
side. Under cover of this, sharpshooters pushed their way 
forward into all the available spaces. The fleet opened with 
its tremendous volleys. Vicksburg was girdled by a sheet of 
flame from deep-throated cannon, lighter field-piece and Minnie 
rifle. The bombardment was the most concentrated, unremit- 
ting and terrible during the siege, and lasted till eleven o'clock. 
It was not responded to heartily. Even if Pemberton had not 
been forced to economize ammunition, it would have been im- 
possible for his gunners to stand by their instruments of death, 
amid that rain of lead and iron missiles 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 147 

At eleven the grand movement of the army corps began. 
Grant stood near McPherson's front, where he could see the 
advancing columns of the Seventeenth and part of those of the 
Thirteenth and Fifteenth Corps. All moved in concert. The 
advance was most difficult, amid mazes of ravines and hills, 
abattised slopes and fortified summits. Yet the attack was 
determined. Sally after sally was made from the Federal lines 
upon supposed weak points, and charge after charge upon 
murderous positions. Never men exposed themselves more 
recklessly, or fought braver, in the midst of fires which seemed 
to come out of the very earth, and to enfilade and concentrate 
with merciless precision, such was the nature of the ground 
and the frequency and bearing of the rifle pits and entrench- 
ments. Though the enemy's strong positions were forced in 
many places, they could not be held. 

The Federal losses in killed and wounded during the day 
were three thousand. They had thirty thousand engaged. 
Pemberton said he had eighteen thousand five hundred men 
in the trenches, and lost eight hundred. The Federal repulse 
occasioned no murmuring, no falling back, no symptoms of 
demoralization. Detachments remained till nightfall close up 
to the advanced positions reached during the day, and then dug 
their way back out of the ditches. Again the mettle of the 
army had been proven, and now it was patent to all that Vicks- 
burg could not be carried by storm. 

Grant at once set about preparations for regular siege, the 
three army corps retaining their old positions, but that of 
McClernand on the left being materially strengthened by 
reinforcements, which by this time were rapidly arriving by 
way of Warrenton and Grand Gulf. Prentiss and Hurlbut were 
ordered to send all the forces they could spare from Corinth, 
Memphis and further up the Mississippi. A large cavalry force 
was organized for watching the rear of his army and observing 
the movements of Johnston, who was collecting his forces at 



I48 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Canton with the determination of striking another blow for 
Pemberton's rescue. Grant's part was plain, but its perform- 
ance most difficult and hazardous. He must hold the line of 
the Big Black river as the natural defence of his rear. He 
must cover the line of the Yazoo to a point as high up as 
Hayne's Bluff, for there lay his right, and that was his main 
source of supplies as well as communication with the Missis- 
sippi to the North. He must keep Johnston in check. He 
must push his siege operations with all the energy at his com- 
mand. 

On May 23d orders were given that the axe, pick and shovel 
should support the cartridge and bayonet. There were no 
siege trains or howitzers and few appliances for regular siege 
operations. But volunteer parties, with stout hearts and willing 
hands, made up for this inconvenience. Roads and covered ways 
were opened from camp to camp. Timbers were felled. Bat- 
teries were posted wherever they were necessary to keep down 
the enemy's fire or disarm his positions. Sharpshooters 
were kept active at every point. The hillside approaches were 
worked by degrees closer and closer to the enemy's entrench- 
ments. Sappers and working parties almost undermined the 
Confederate parapets in places. In two weeks' time the entire 
Confederate front had shifted, by a backward movement of its 
artillery, and abandonment of its outer lines. 

Early in June, Grant had eighty-nine batteries in position, 
numbering two hundred and twenty guns, mostly light field- 
pieces, and some of them within four hundred yards of the 
Confederate entrenchments. The enemy were always active, 
digging counter trenches and springing mines. They were 
least effective with their artillery owing to scarcity of 
ammunition. To tell how, by means of deep-covered trenches, 
Grant pushed his men under the very guns of the enemy, to 
mention the labor, the engineering feats, the surprises, to dwell 
on the incidents connected with digging a pathway for an 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 



149 



army into a city so strongly defended, would require a volume. 
It is enough to say that neither ingenuity, industry nor daring 
could have done more to tighten the lines about the fated city. 
Its time would come and soon, if nothing interfered. By night 
and by day it was to receive a baptism of fire, now from gun- 
boat, then artillery, and there was to be no rest till the end. 
The prices of food in the town had, by this time, risen enor- 
mously. There was scarcely a building in Vicksburg that had 
not been struck by shells, and many were entirely demolished. 
The women and children at night, and often in daytime 
when the firing was especially severe, were sheltered in caves 
that were grouped in every hillside. They were rather damp 
bedrooms, but answered a very good purpose. But something 




CAVE LIFE IN VICKSBURG. 

was threatening in the rear. Johnston had collected an army at 
Canton and was moving on Grant. His direction would in 
all probability be toward Hayne's Bluff. Porter was ordered 
to guard the Yazoo well with his gunboats, Sherman was 
strengthened with all the reinforcements arriving from the 
North. New lines of entrenchments were formed from Grant's 
centre clear to the Bluff, so that he could fight either way. 



I50 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

But it was no part of his plan to let Johnston approach him. 
"We must whip him at least fifteen miles off" was his order 
to General Parke. 

On June 2d, he heard that Johnston was crossing the Big 
Black. Immediately Sherman was ordered to assume com- 
mand of all the forces which were to face about and operate to 
the rearward. " Should Johnston come we want to whip 
him, if the siege has to be raised to do it," was the sentiment 
which went with the orders to move, and the promise of all 
the support that might be asked for. 

On June 27th, Grant heard that Johnston, whose strength 
was estimated at twenty-four thousand men, expected a rein- 
forcement of ten thousand from Bragg in Tennessee. He still 
felt strong enough to contend against this increase, for his 
men were in excellent health and full of expectation. On 
July 1st, Johnston was reported between the Big Black and 
Brownsville. On the 3d, an intercepted dispatch from Johns- 
ton read that he would make an attack on Grant on the 7th, 
and that he (Pemberton) should attack from within. Dupli- 
cates of this dispatch did not reach Pemberton till the 10th. 
As a counter to this, Grant, who had made every disposition to 
meet Johnston, determined to make another assault on Pem- 
berton's works on the 6th of July, and if possible either 
capture the city or so demoralize the enemy that he could 
neither make an effective diversion in Johnston's favor nor a 
successful escape. An enemy's movement always necessitates 
a counter movement, was a maxim Grant never forgot. 

But in the midst of all this planning, excitement and prepa- 
ration, there befell that which was to crown every Federal sac- 
rifice with victory and add new lustre to Grant's fame. On 
the morning of July 3d, Pemberton sent a letter to Grant pro- 
posing an armistice, and a commission of three to arrange 
terms of surrender. To this Grant replied, declining to appoint 
a commission, for the reason that no terms of capitulation were 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 15 1 

possible except unconditional surrender of the city and garri- 
son ; and added : " Men who have shown so much courage and 
endurance as those now in Vicksburg will always challenge 
the respect of an adversary, and I can assure you will be 
treated with all the respect due to prisoners of war." The 
reply also accorded Pemberton a personal interview if he 
desired one. 

At three o'clock in the afternoon Pemberton, accompanied 
by Bowen and Colonel Montgomery, proceeded to the front. 
General Grant met them under a tree on the hillside, within 
two hundred feet of the Confederate lines. He was accom- 
panied by several members of his staff and by A. J. Smith, 
McPherson, Logan and Ord, who had lately succeeded 
McClernand dismissed for haughty and irregular congratula- 
tions of his corps and for reflections on the other corps com- 
manders after the assault of May 22d. The works on both 
sides were crowded with unarmed men, and for once in six 
long weeks the mouths of muskets, artillery and great cannon 
were dumb. 

The two generals shook hands, and Pemberton asked what 
terms of capitulation would be allowed. Grant replied : " Those 
expressed in the letter of this morning." Said Pemberton, 
haughtily : " If that is all, the conference might as well ter- 
minate, and hostilities be resumed immediately." "Very 
well," said Grant, and turned away. 

Bowen then proposed that two of the subordinates then 
present should retire and propose such terms as they could 
agree upon to their chiefs. Grant had no objection to this, 
but refused to be bound by any agreement of his subordinates. 
Bowen and Smith withdrew, and in a short time returned with 
the suggestion that the Confederates should march out of 
Vicksburg with the honors of war, carrying their muskets and 
field guns with them, but leaving their heavy artillery. Grant 
smiled at this proposal and rejected it. It was then agreed 



152 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

that he should send his final terms to Pemberton before ten 
o'clock that night, hostilities not to be resumed till the cor- 
respondence terminated. 

The General sent for all his corps and division generals 
then on the city front, and for the first time in his life held 
what might be called a formal council of war. Their opinions, 
with the exception of Steele's, did not meet his views, and he 
sent the following as his ultimatum : 

" I submit the following for the surrender of Vicksburg, 
public stores, etc. On your accepting, I will march in one 
division as a guard, and take possession at 8 A. m. 
to-morrow. As soon as the rolls can be made and paroles 
signed by officers and men, you will be allowed to march out 
of your lines, the officers bearing side arms and clothing, and 
the field, staff and cavalry officers taking one horse each. 
The rank and file will be allowed their clothing, but no other 
property. You may take along any amount of rations you 
deem necessary from your stores and sufficient cooking uten- 
sils. Thirty wagons will be allowed for the transport of such 
articles as cannot be carried. Same conditions to all sick and 
wounded as fast as they become able to travel, their paroles to 
be signed while the proper officers are present." 

To this Pemberton replied at midnight, accepting it in the 
main, but proposing some amendments, which were not 
accepted, except that the men were permitted to march to the 
front of their respective lines, stack arms at 10 A. m. of the 
4th of July, and then remain as prisoners till paroled. The 
following from Pemberton concluded the correspondence: "I 
have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communi- 
cation of this day (now the 4th), and in reply to say that the 
terms proposed by you are accepted." 

At ten o'clock on the morning of Saturday, July 4th, 1863, 
the anniversary of American Independence, the Confederate 
garrison of " The Gibraltar of America " marched out of the 



154 LIFE F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

lines it had defended so long and valiantly and stacked its 
arms in front of the victors. It then returned, empty handed 
and silent, within the works as prisoners of war. Thirty-one 
thousand six hundred men surrendered, two thousand one 
hundred and fifty-three of whom were officers, and fifteen of 
the rank of general. One hundred and seventy-two cannon 
also fell to the victors, which, with those previously taken at 
Grand Gulf and Hayne's Bluff, made two hundred and forty- 
six in all. This ranks as the largest capture of men and 
material ever made in war, that of Ulm being next, where 
thirty thousand men, with sixty pieces of cannon, fell into 
the hands of the adversary by surrender. 

Logan's division had the honor of first entering the city, at 
whose head Grant rode. A request by Pemberton for an issue 
of rations to his troops, which he said numbered thirty-two 
thousand men, was the first intimation that Grant had of the 
extent of his victory. He had never credited the Confederate 
general with a force of over twenty thousand. After riding 
to the river front and congratulating Admiral Porter, he dis- 
patched the glorious news of the surrender and the terms to 
Washington. Banks was notified of the success and was offered 
a corps of "as good troops as ever trod American soil; no 
better are found on any other." Sherman and McPherson 
were ordered to close up in front of Johnston and " drive him 
from the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad, destroy 
the bridges as far north as Grenada, and do the enemy all the 
harm possible. I will support you to the last man that can be 
spared." And he did. Sherman drove Johnston out of 
Clinton and into Jackson. By July 9th the place was invested, 
while the work of destroying railroads according to Grant's 
orders went on. On the 16th the investment was so close 
that Johnston, fearing assault, withdrew across the Pearl river, 
burning the bridges behind him. Pursuit was kept up for fifty 
miles, when it was withdrawn, and Sherman returned to Vicks- 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 155 

burg, having lost less then a thousand men. There was no 
longer an enemy in the rear. 

Herron's division was sent immediately from Vicksburg to 
Banks at Port Hudson, which stronghold surrendered on July 
8th, yielding ten thousand more prisoners and fifty guns, 
another fruit, indirectly at least, of the campaign which Grant 




PORT HUDSON. 

had conceived and pushed to such a triumphant conclusion. 
Victory had not made him unmindful of details. He swept 
the field everywhere with his wonderful vision, and delivered 
orders as promptly and calmly as if the responsibilities of an 
aggressive campaign were still upon him. 

What did Vicksburg mean ? It meant the fulfilled dream, 



I56 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the crowned central hope, the completed solemn resolution of 
the great Northwest. An unvexed Mississippi was not a 
greater strategic than commercial necessity. It now ran free 
to the sea, an outlet for every form of produce, an artery for 
the flow of peaceful or armed craft, industrial bargemen or 
uniformed cohorts. " The possession of the Mississippi river 
is the possession of America, and I say that had the Confed- 
eracy held with a grip sufficiently strong the lower part of the 
Mississippi river we would have been a subjugated people; 
and they would have dictated to us had we given up the pos- 
session of the lower Mississippi. It was vital to us, and we 
fought for it and won it." This is the language of Grant's 
warmest friend and most trusted lieutenant, Major-General W. 
T. Sherman. It is no more significant than that of President 
Jefferson Davis at Jackson when Grant's purposes became 
known. He urged the citizens "to assist. in preserving the 
Mississippi river, that great artery of the country, and thus 
conduce, more than in any other way, to the perpetuation ot 
the Confederacy, and the success of the cause " 

The fall of Vicksburg meant the severance of the Confed- 
eracy, and the establishment of an armed line directly through 
its great Western Zone. Vicksburg and Port Hudson, two 
hundred miles apart, right and left wing of all that was left of 
a water front to the Confederacy, were sufficiently wide apart 
to serve as a means of communication between the East and 
Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana on the West. On this line 
the well-nigh exhausted East depended for its beef and other 
supplies from the less impoverished West- It was now cut off 
from herded plain and well-stored granary, and had therefore 
received a blow which was harder to bear than the loss of 
munitions and men. 

Vicksburg meant the elimination of the entire army of the 
Confederacy on whose shoulders the defence of the Southwest 
depended. The major part of that army had surrendered, the 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 



157 



rest had been driven clear off the scene of effective action. 
This was a source of humiliation, a blow at the spirit of the 
Confederacy, a cause of gloomy doubts, a rude awakening to 
the possibility of never realizing by force of arms the success 




JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of secession and separate empire. In a single campaign that 
army had suffered five defeats outside of Vicksburg, had been 
severed and its greater part captured within the defences, had 
been driven from Jackson, had lost forty thousand prisoners, 
twelve thousand killed and wounded, and thousands of strag- 
glers, in all fully sixty thousand men, with arms and munitions 
for one hundred thousand effectives. 

The result to the army of the West was as it a great load 



I58 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

had been lifted. It was exhilarated and nerved for new con- 
quests. Its trials had brought it unmatched discipline, its vic- 
tories rendered it invincible. Henceforth it would move in 
any direction with the willingness of a veteran band and the 
certainty of triumph. Its least excited, most unperturbed and 
modest spirit was its great leader, who asked nothing for him- 
self, claimed nothing except through the gallant officers and 
privates who had so cheerfully and obediently followed him 
through the valleys of trial and up to the summits of victory. 
He congratulated all on their devotion and bravery, and Sher- 
man, McPherson and all his faithful officers were remembered 
with hearty recommendations for honor and promotion. 

The effect of Vicksburg on the armies of the East was inspir- 
ing. They had for a long time been worried by changes of 
commanders, by General Lee's tactical marches and sudden 
onsets, and had at last been forced to concentrate, not in time 
to prevent, but in order to meet, a bold and desperate attempt 
on the part of that renowned leader to march into the North 
and pierce its very vitals. While Grant was investing Vicks- 
burg, all the northeastern States were quaking and all the 
Federal armies therein were seemingly overmatched. It 
seemed to require such a move as that of General Lee, above 
the Potomac and into Pennsylvania, to establish unanimity, 
awaken co-operation, and force a clear perception of danger. 
Lee forced Gettysburg on the Federal armies of the East, just 
as Grant forced Vicksburg on the Confederate armies of the 
West ; not, to be sure, with the same victorious preludes, but 
with the same originality of conception and tactical despera- 
tion. The results were wholly different. Grant kept Pem- 
berton and Johnston separated. It was genius against genius 
and physical force against physical force. Lee could not keep 
his opposition divided, for the division had been simply in its 
councils, a matter of feeling, moral, rather than physical 
division. A common danger, a patriotic awakening, a firm 



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG. 



159 



united resolve, a commander whose power to command was 
greater than his individual sentiments, his speculative fervor, 
his love of self, and there would come about a result which 
not even the energy and genius of a Lee could contravene. 
Gettysburg was this result. It was a clash of two great armies, 
equal in strength and on a fair field. It was a test of valor 
and resource for three whole days. Men stood firm in both 
ranks, and died or were wounded in nearly equal numbers. 
It was a brave fight in which Meade and Lee, and all the 
officers and men on both sides, 
as the reader may choose to 
view them, won glory. But 
even on the night of July 3d, 
1863, it was nobody's victory, 
nor yet on the morning of the 
4th. Not until the confession 
made by Lee's retreat was 
wafted back to the Federal 
front, and passed thence from 
corps to corps and camp to 
camp, did the Federal army 
realize that it was triumphant, GEN - MEADE - 

and the nation that it had cause for congratulation more 
inspiring than its memories of a natal day. And even yet that 
tired and worn-out army, too stricken to give successful pur- 
suit, too sad to jubilate with its home friends, was not assured 
of the magnitude of its blow or the real wealth of its conquest, 
till its heart was electrified by the news that Vicksburg too 
had fallen and the stars and stripes were waving in triumph on 
its ramparts. The thrill of subdued delight then became one 
of unrestrained joy, and every Federal soldier felt that even 
if Lee had not been crushed, he must go back to a country 
bowed in despair, and henceforth support a cause whose life 
was rapidly oozing. 




l6o LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Who can imagine the effect of Vicksburg and Gettysburg 
combined on the country ? It was as if a dumb mouth had 
suddenly opened and proclaimed its joy on the housetops. It 
was as if a deeply sunken heart had in a moment leaped into 
glowing action. It was as if a lowering cloud, impervious to 
all radiance, had been whisked away by glad breezes, and a full 
flow of hope's brightest sunlight had come upon the people. 
A loud, prolonged, united, Amen! sealed the country's prayers 
for deliverance, its heartfelt words of approval, its speeches 
and songs and acts of jubilation. The drift of a cause was 
changed. Destiny took new shape. The United States were 
not to be divided States. Amid the unbounded joy of the 
people and the supreme satisfaction of the Government, General 
Grant became the recipient of unstinted praise and a central 
figure in our military history. He was hailed with unfeigned 
delight and sincerity as " the only general who was always 
successful." President Lincoln wrote him on July 13th, after 
the full effects of his victory became known, " I write this now 
as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable ser- 
vice you have done the country. . . . When you got below 
Vicksburg and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I 
thought you should go down the river and join General 
Banks ; and when you turned northward east of the Big 
Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a per- 
sonal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong ;" 
and Halleck, who had all along disapproved of the campaign, 
wrote : 

" Your report dated July 6th, of your Mississippi campaign, 
ending in the capitulation of Vicksburg was received last even- 
ing. Your narration of the campaign, like the operations 
themselves, is brief, soldierly and in every respect creditable 
and satisfactory. In boldness of plan, rapidity of execution, 
and brilliancy of routes, these operations will compare most 
favorably with those of Napoleon at Ulm. You and your 



1 62 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

army have well deserved the gratitude of your country, and it 
will be the boast of your children that their fathers were of the 
heroic army which reopened the Mississippi river." 

The grade of major general in the regular army was imme- 
diately conferred upon him. Called assemblies, patriotic clubs, 
and deliberative bodies sent him votes of thanks, costly gifts, 
and other honors. Amid all he maintained a quiet, unostenta- 
tious dignity, declining ovations and refusing to rob his com- 
panions in arms of their share of the credit due for the late 
campaigns and victories. And yet, could one have seen 
beneath that calm exterior, there must have been witnessed a 
secret glow of satisfaction over vindication of his private char- 
acter from the aspersions of imaginative and malignant army 
correspondents, and of his military ability and genius from dis- 
paraging slur and jealous criticism indulged by those who 
looked solely to political influence for favor and promotion. 

Once he yielded to an invitation to attend an ovation 
designed to reflect the loyal sentiment of Memphis. It was in 
August after his army had enjoyed a rest and all the fruit of 
Vicksburg had been carefully gathered. His reply to the 
invitation shows his public spirit and clear perception of 
personal and political duty. It runs : 

" In accepting this testimonial, which I do at great sacrifice 
of personal feelings, I simply desire to pay a tribute to the first 
public exhibition in Memphis of loyalty to the Government 
which I represent in the Department of the Tennessee. I 
should dislike to refuse, for considerations of personal conve- 
nience, to acknowledge anywhere or in any form, the existence 
of sentiments which I have so long and so ardently desired to 
see manifested in this department. The stability of this govern- 
ment, and the unity of this nation, depend solely on the cordial 
support and the earnest loyalty of the people!' 



CHAPTER IX. 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 



THOUGH Grant's forces had a much needed rest for 
some time after the fall of Vicksburg, his fertile mind 
was busy devising new schemes of conquest. As early as 
July 1 8th, he wrote to Halleck: "It seems to me now that 
Mobile should be captured, the expedition to start from Lake 
Pontchartrain." But Halleck had other plans, and a grand op- 
portunity was lost. Still Grant continued to urge the im- 
portance of a move on this only remaining stronghold of the 
Confederates on the Gulf, and offered to assist with one of his 
army corps. It was vain. He was forced to see his army 
scattered, the Thirteenth Corps, Ord's, to Banks, a division to 
Schofield, to operate against Price in 
Arkansas, a corps, the Ninth, to 
Burnside in East Kentucky, portions 
to garrison unimportant places on 
the Mississippi and other rivers. 
At length orders came that he should 
co-operate with Banks in securing a 
permanent foothold in Texas. 
1 On August 30th he started to 
New Orleans to see Banks. While 
there he was thrown from his horse 

and disabled. This postponed his return to Vicksburg 
September 16th, where he was compelled to keep his bed till 
the 25th. On the 13th Halleck telegraphed him that he 
should send all his available forces to Rosecrans, who was then 

163 




GEN. BANKS. 



till 



164 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



operating with an army of sixty thousand men in Tennessee 
and northern Georgia, where he had just obtained possession 
of Chattanooga, one of the most important strategic positions 
between Richmond and the Mississippi. 

It may be well to know that at this juncture the military 
operations of the Mississippi Valley were conducted by three 
different armies, the army of the Tennessee, under Grant, the 
army of the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, the army of the 
Ohio, under Burnside. Halleck's dispatch of the 13th not 
having been received, he again sent word on the 15th, to the 
effect that part of Lee's army had been sent from Richmond 
to reinforce Bragg, who was rapidly concentrating for an 
attack on Rosecrans. 

This dispatch reached Grant on the 22d. Though in bed, 
he instantly ordered Sherman to send a division of his corps 
to Rosecrans, and a similar order was sent to McPherson. 
On the 27th, Sherman himself was sent to Rosecrans' aid 
with two more divisions of his corps. The route was by 
boats to Memphis and thence overland by way of Corinth, 
Tuscambia and Decatur. That Sherman's progress might be 

uninterrupted Grant ordered an 
expedition to Canton and Jackson 
to distract the enemy. 

But long before these reinforce- 
ments could reach their destina- 
tion, the blow which Rosecrans 
had foolishly invited and Halleck 
had foreseen fell on the Federal 
army at Chickamauga. Rose- 
crans suffered disastrous defeat on 
the 19th and 20th of September, 
and was driven back to Chatta- 
nooga with heavy loss of men and 
artillery and the sacrifice of immense strategic advantages. 




GEN. ROSECRANS. 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 1 65 

On September 29th, Halleck wrote that the enemy was still 
concentrating on Rosecrans, that all the forces he (Grant) 
could spare should be sent under able generals, such as Sher- 
man or McPherson, and that as soon as his health permitted he 
should go to Nashville in person to take direction of the move- 
ment. Grant replied that he was again ready for duty, 
and had ordered everything to suit Halleck's wishes. On 
October 3d the Secretary of War telegraphed him to come to 
Cairo and report. On October 16th he telegraphed his arrival 
at that point. To which Halleck replied requesting him to 
proceed to the Gait House, Louisville, Ky., to meet an officer 
of the War Department. At Indianapolis he met Hon. 
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, who brought with him 
an order creating for Grant a new command — the Military 
Division of the Mississippi, to include all the territory between 
the Alleghenies and Mississippi, except such as Banks held 
below Port Hudson. Thus the three Departments of the 
Tennessee, Cumberland and Ohio were consolidated under 
him. This was in accordance with his advice to Halleck a 
year before, at which time he declined the command of such 
united department as he then proposed, in order to show that 
his personal ambitions had nothing to do with his convictions. 

The imperative necessity for co-operation between all the 
commands embraced in the new Department had become 
painfully manifest to the government. The disaster to Rose- 
crans at Chickamauga had hastened its decision. It was a 
great responsibility for Grant to assume, but no other general 
had accomplished so much. Past successes gave a guarantee 
for future ones, the danger at Chattanooga was imminent, and 
increasing daily. It was necessary to act promptly, boldly, 
unitedly. 

At the same time General Grant was shown two other 
orders by Stanton, either of which he could accept. One left 
Rosecrans in command of the Army and Department of the 




CAT__ 

f/5«ilK 



; - so/V^c 



166 



MAP OF CHATTANOOGA AND VICINITY. 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 1 67 

Cumberland, the other gave it to Major-General George H. 
Thomas. Thomas was chosen. Stanton and Grant arrived 
at Louisville together, where the former found a dispatch from 
Mr. C. A. Dana, afterward Assistant Secretary of War, to the 
effect that it was feared Rosecrans would evacuate Chatta- 
nooga. Grant was therefore advised to assume command at 
once, and relieve Rosecrans before the disaster could occur. 
He telegraphed his assumption of command immediately, 
assigned Thomas to the Department of the Cumberland, and 
on October 19th started by rail for Chattanooga. 

Let us glance at the new destination. Three great States, 
Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, approach eaqh other at, or 
near, where several of the Cumberland Ranges of mountains 
cluster. Here the Tennessee river breaks through from the 
east, twisting and winding amid deep gorges, dashing vexa- 
tiously against perpendicular barriers till it finds egress west- 
ward into a more fertile and less picturesque region. 

At a sharp bend of the river in the midst of the mountains 
lies a little bowl or valley of the area of five or six square 
miles. On the north is the river, on the southeast the now 
celebrated Missionary Ridge, on the southwest the Lookout 
ranges. To the south runs off a ravine or gap. The lofty 
crest overlooking all is Chattanooga, or the " Eagle's Nest." 
The river gives access to this sequestered spot, eastward and 
westward ; the natural gap gives access from the south. The 
through railroads from Richmond and Charleston to Memphis, 
Nashville and St. Louis, seek this river route. So do those 
from south to north, from Mobile, Atlanta, and on to Knox- 
ville, Richmond and Washington. They meet at the " Eagle's 
Nest," and there the town of Chattanooga sprang up. The 
whole region is a mighty bulwark, and the town a gate- 
way between North and South. In war, its strategic import- 
ance could not be over-estimated, and especially to the Con- 
federacy, for here centered those long food and troop lines, 



1 68 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

which enabled the States of the southwest to come up to the 
rescue of Virginia and the Confederate capital. In the hands 
of a Federal army it looked right into the cotton fields and 
gave access to the gulf. It was a coveted point from the first, 
and its possession had been dreamed of in the strategy of more 
than one department commander. 

In June, 1863, Rosecrans marched an army of sixty thou- 
sand men from Murfreesboro, Tenn., crossed the Tennessee 
river at Stevenson, threw part of his army south of Bragg's 
forces at Chattanooga, and thus compelled him to evacuate 
the stronghold and retreat southward to Chickamauga. There 
Bragg was reinforced, and there he pounced on Rosecrans, 
beating him in a battle, September 19th and 20th, in which the 
Federals lost thirty-six cannon and sixteen thousand men, and 
compelling his retreat back to Chattanooga, where he built 
stout fortifications. 

The Confederates followed. Bragg's forces occupied Mission- 
ary Ridge, south and east of the town. Westward, overlook- 
ing the valley and river and controlling the Nashville and 
Chattanooga railroad by which supplies were brought to the 
Federal army, lay Lookout Mountain. This Rosecrans aban- 
doned to the enemy, and was from that moment besieged, 
except as communications could be kept up by wagons with 
Bridgeport beyond the mountains by an almost impassible 
wagon-road. The whole command was put on half rations. 
Three thousand wounded soldiers lay suffering in the camps. 
Forage for horses and mules could not be obtained, and ten 
thousand animals died. Retreat was impossible unless the 
artillery was abandoned. The enemy's cavalry had found a 
way to intercept the provision wagons from Bridgeport. 
Ammunition was so low as scarcely to suffice for another 
battle — one-half a supply. Here the army of the Cumberland 
lay in the hot sun and chilly nights of September, 1863, without 
food, with few tents, with half a supply of ammunition, with few 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 1 69 

blankets and no extra clothing, suffering from all the dire effects 
of defeat and hasty retreat from Chickamauga. This was the 
situation when Grant took the command on October 19th, 1863. 

His first order to Thomas after giving him command of the 
army of the Cumberland was " to hold Chattanooga at all haz- 
ards ; I will be there as soon as possible." To which the 
reply came, " We'll hold the town till we starve." Grant 
reached Bridgeport by rail and was compelled to cross the 
mountains by a circuitous route, and after night, amid a drench- 
ing rain, which made the ground slippery. His horse fell and 
bruised him severely, which greatly intensified the pain he was 
already suffering from the fall in New Orleans. 

He arrived in Chattanooga on the night of October 23d, and 
immediately set about to rescue the army from its peril and 
prepare it for final victory. Indeed this he had been doing all 
the way from Louisville, for on his arrival at Nashville on the 
20th, he telegraphed to Burnside at Knoxville : " Have you 
tools for fortifying ? Important points in east Tennessee should 
be put in condition to be held by the least number of men, as 
soon as possible." And to Admiral Porter, at Cairo, he sent 
word : " Sherman's advance was at Eastport on the 15th. The 
sooner a gunboat can be got to him the better. Boats must 
now be on the way from St. Louis to go up the Tennessee to 
Sherman." And then to Thomas : " Should not large working 
parties be put upon the road between Bridgeport and Chatta- 
• nooga at once ? " Arriving at Bridgeport, he telegraphed the 
commissary at Nashville : " Send to the front, as speedily as 
possible, vegetables for the army. Beans and hominy are 
especially required." Thus before he got on the ground he 
was taking in the situation with the grasp of a great military 
genius and providing for an emergency which he knew could 
only be met by prompt and herculean effort. An army had to 
be saved from such a dilemma as no other Federal army found 
itself in during the war, and if possible by winning a victory. 



170 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



On his arrival in Chattanooga he went at once to Thomas' 
headquarters, and learned the situation as that modest but 
most able general gave it. He found it truly deplorable. 
There had been no exaggeration of the plight of the 




THOMAS' HEADQUARTERS. 



Federal forces, and as to the Confederates, there they were 
to speak for themselves on all the commanding ridges 
and in all the impregnable passes of the mountains. After 
approving of Thomas' order to Hooker, who had been sent 
from the army of the Potomac with two corps, to concentrate 
at Bridgeport and hold the Tennessee as well as the main 
wagon road between that place and Chattanooga, he reported 
to Halleck at Washington, and asked him to confirm his order 
giving Sherman control of the army of the Tennessee, his own^ 
(Grant's) old command. 

The next day he and Thomas made a reconnoissance of the 
place. To clear the river and wagon road from Chattanooga 
to Bridgeport, and to hold both, thus opening an avenue for 
supplies, was a matter of the first necessity. To effect this the 
ingenuity of both Grant and Thomas was taxed to the utter- 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. I/I 

most, for at least seven miles of the river was under the fire of 
the Confederate pickets. But at a point nine miles below, and 
around the sharp bend in the river which makes the peninsula 
of Moccasin Point, was a place called Brown's Ferry. The 
enemy's lines did not extend that far. If that point could be 
occupied much else might be effected. What ? 

The base of supplies would be brought within nine miles of 
Chattanooga, while now they were thirty-five miles away at 
Bridgeport. On the south side of the river at Brown's Ferry 
was a valley which ran down between Raccoon Mountain on 
the west, and Lookout Mountain on the east. This valley 
could be occupied, and then the ranges of Lookout on that 
side could be scaled, for there was no enemy there, they being 
intent on watching the river front, overlooking Moccasin Point, 
and the projections overshadowing Chattanooga. This would 
have much of the effect of a flank movement, and once a foot- 
hold was gained on these westerly spurs of Lookout, the river 
could be controlled by artillery for several of the intervening- 
seven miles, or indeed all the way, for the Federals were in 
possession of the Moccasin Point peninsula, though directly 
overlooked by the Confederates on the Lookout crags. Again, 
a force could be sent down this valley from Brown's Ferry, or 
down the Raccoon Valley further west, and passing through 
gaps in the ranges, could debouch into Lookout Valley quite 
in the rear of the Confederates. 

A movement was projected and orders issued. Everything 
depended on celerity and secrecy. The movement consisted 
of three parts. It was necessary that all should fit. On the 
night of October 26th, two days after orders were issued, all 
was ready. General Smith had command of the river expedi- 
tion with four thousand picked men. Palmer marched over two 
thousand of these north of the river to Jasper, and crossed 
at Kelley's Ferry to the south side. Hazen embarked 
eighteen hundred on sixty pontoon boats, and under cover of 



172 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 




GEN. J M. PALMER. 



darkness dropped down to Brown's Ferry. Both were on 
time. Palmer crossed and held the road to Kelley's Ferry on 
the south. Hazen landed on the south side, pushed his forces 
to the almost inaccessible heights over the river, and soon had 

them in a position where they 
commanded the Ferry over which 
he was to lay his pontoon bridge, 
and the mouth of Lookout Valley 

also. 

I 

Meanwhile Hooker had orders 
to cross from Bridgeport. He 
did so with Howard's corps, and 
Geary's division of Slocum's corps, 
and on the morning of the 26th, 
marched down the west side of 
Raccoon Mountain, passed a gorge 
into Lookout Valley, and turned 
northward toward the Tennessee. He met with but 
slight resistance, for the whole movement was in the 
nature of a surprise and upon an unfortified flank of the 
enemy. On the 28th he was within a mile of Brown's 
Ferry. That night Longstreet's corps made a fierce assault 
on him, which was resisted amid confusion but with great 
determination. The battle raged for several hours with the 
utmost intensity. By repeated charges the Federals forced 
their way up the steep heights and gained a permanent foot- 
hold on the summits, which they were not slow to fortify and 
make secure against further assault. Hooker had nearly 
seven thousand men engaged, and his loss was four hundred 
and sixteen in killed and wounded. The Confederate loss 
was much heavier. This sealed the fate of Lookout Valley, 
and gave the Federals almost entire control of the two wagon 
roads from Chattanooga to Bridgeport. Thus in five days 
from Grant's arrival at the point of danger the beleaguered 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 1 73 

army had found an outlet, and a bold and confident enemy had 
been put on the defensive. The Confederate authorities were 
terribly chagrined at the unexpected result They saw their 
prize suddenly snatched from their grasp by one who had 
outwitted them in strategy and dazed them with his boldness 
and quickness. Looking down from their fortified peaks on a 
camp where misery reigned and starvation impended, they saw 
it, as if by magic, transformed into a busy, cheerful, formidable 
scene. Old steamboats were repaired and new ones built. 
Railroads were replaced. Pontoons were laid. Horses, mules 
and wagons came with ample supplies. Sherman was nearing 
the place with his western veterans. Other reinforcements 
were expected. The gloom of Chickamauga was fast giving 
way to a confident spirit of aggression. The soldiers felt 
they had a commander who could see and relieve their neces- 
sities. On October 28th, General Grant said : " If the Con- 
federates give us one week more time, I think all danger of 
losing territory now held by us will have passed away, and 
preparations may commence for active operations." 

But though the pressing emergency at Chattanooga was 
met by Grant's activity and admirable strategy, there were still 
other needs requiring instant attention, equal vigor and a wider 
range of generalship. His new military division extended 
from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, and included two 
hundred thousand soldiers. Burnside, with twenty-five thousand 
men, was in the Valley of the Tennessee, at Knoxville, east of 
the Cumberland Mountains. He was away from a base of 
supplies. These had to be sent from St. Louis, by way of the 
Ohio and Cumberland rivers, and then overland by wagon 
from Big South Fork, a hundred miles. This varied and com- 
plicated business was superintended directly by Grant, for he 
had not only heard Burnside's plaint for stores, but knew how 
important it was to hold the line of the upper Tennessee 
against any and every attack. 



174 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Sherman was nearing Chattanooga, and every preparation 
had. to be made for expediting his march. The gunboat 
ordered to meet him at Eastport was promptly there, also 
barges for ferry purposes. In a day or two the fleet of steamers 
ordered up with provisions arrived. Thus all Grant's advance 
plans to help him culminated as he intended. Sherman's march 
from Memphis had been toilsome, and not without opposition, 
though no great battle had been fought. He was most anxious 
to reach Grant, whom he, with true soldierly spirit, had urged 
to "Accept the command of the great army of the centre; 
don't hesitate. By your presence at Nashville you will unite 
all discordant elements, and impress the enemy in proportion. 
All success and honor to you ! " And again, with equal mag- 
nanimity, he wrote Grant: "I am very anxious you shall go 
to Nashville, as foreshadowed by Halleck, and chiefly as you 
can harmonize all conflicts of feeling that may exist in that 
vast crowd. Rosecrans, and Burnside, and Sherman, with their 
subordinates, would be ashamed of petty quarrels, if you were 
behind and near them — between them and Washington. Next, 
the union of such armies, and the direction of it, is worthy 
your ambition. I shall wait news from you with great anxiety." 

From the date of Grant's assumption of command, October 
19th, 1863, he sent orders to Sherman, regulating his marches 
and the in-gathering and disposition of his forces, all of which 
were obeyed with a promptitude which showed that the older 
general's heart was in his words. On November 7th, Grant 
sent him word of Bragg's prospective move on Burnside at 
Knoxville, and that he expected to make a countermove directly 
on the enemy in his front. Haste was urged, and Sherman 
responded with forced marches. On November 13th he 
reported his arrival at Bridgeport, and was summoned in per- 
son to Chattanooga. And now Grant had with him all his 
trustiest lieutenants. They were a united band of officers in 
spirit, determined in valor, able in council. He could look 



FROM VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA. 1 75 

with some serenity on the situation, and devise and order with 
the certainty of co-operation and the assurance of loyal exe- 
cution. Extricated from the entanglements of the preceding 
weeks, every subordinate, clear down to the lines, felt a freedom 
and confidence which was unwonted, and burned with a desire 
to show by brave acts his love for one who had brought them 
through midnight to morning, and gave them promise of a 
glorious day of victory. 



CHAPTER X. 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 



STRANGE as it may appear, Burnside's position at Knoxville, 
a hundred miles away from Chattanooga, and amid the 
mountains of East Tennessee, was now one of greater anxiety 
than that at Chattanooga. That General had, before Grant as- 
sumed direction of affairs, pushed his way from Kentucky 
through the Cumberland Gap and upon Knoxville, which he 
regarded as a key to the upper Tennessee. It was so in some 
respects, but not in all. It would have been entirely so for the 
Confederates, who held the railroad from East Tennessee into 
Virginia, and who, by virtue of their position at Chattanooga, 
controlled it from that point almost to Knoxville. Yet it was 
one worthy of maintainance, and Grant felt that Burnside 
must be supported at all hazards. He did not contemplate 
doing it directly, but by means of one of those masterly 
counter movements which he had so often employed success- 
fully and which formed such a conspicuous feature of his 
military operations. 

At Knoxville, Burnside's rear was open to a sudden move- 
ment of the enemy from the east. He could be attacked in 
front with equal facility by any portion of the army detached 
from Chattanooga. Halleck was most anxious for his safety, 
and repeatedly urged Grant to reinforce and protect him, all of 
which was done, but in Grant's own way. He did it by open- 
ing his supply lines for him, by ordering him to entrench him- 
176 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I 77 

self strongly, and to live as much as possible off the country, 
by concentrating his own forces more strongly at Chattanooga, 
by getting ready for an offensive blow which, if successful, 
must speedily recall any forces sent northward from his imme- 
diate front. 

The Confederate movement against Burnside took shape. 
It consisted of a diversion from Abingdon in his rear. At the 
same time Bragg, commander of the Confederate army besieg- 
ing Chattanooga, detached Longstreet's corps, and sent it by 
way of Cleveland, Sweetwater, and Loudon to Burnside's front. 
Halleck grew almost frantic for his safety, and his dispatches 
to Grant took the shape of appeals. On November 14th, he 
sent word, " advices from East Tennessee indicate that Burn- 
side intends to abandon the defence of Little Tennessee river and 
fall back before Longstreet to Cumberland Gap and the Upper 
Valley. Longstreet is said to be near the Little Tennessee 
with twenty to forty thousand men. Burnside has about thirty 
thousand in all, and can hold his position ; he ought not to 
retreat. I fear further delay may result in Burnside's abandon- 
ment of East Tennessee. This would be a terrible misfortune, 
and must be averted if possible." 

To this Grant replied developing his whole scheme, for he 
had for days been advised of Bragg's daring movement, and 
saw in it all the elements of a stupendous military blunder, if 
only Sherman were within supporting distance, and he could 
concentrate his forces to take advantage of it. His dispatch 
ran : " Burnside can certainly detain Longstreet in the Ten- 
nessee Valley until we can make such moves here as will 
entirely free him from present danger. I have asked him if 
he can hold the Knoxville and Clinton line for one week ; if 
so, we can make moves here that will save all danger in 
East Tennessee. Sherman is now at Bridgeport. He will 
commence moving to-morrow or next day, throwing one 
brigade from Whiteside into Trenton, thus threatening the 
12 



I78 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

enemy's left flank. The remainder of his force will pass over 
Kelley's Ferry, evading view of Lookout, and march up to the 
mouth of Chickamauga creek. Pontoons are made and 
making to throw across at that point, over which it is intended 
that Sherman's force and one division of Thomas' shall pass. 
This force will attack Missionary Ridge with the left flank of 
Thomas supporting from here. In the meantime Hooker will 
attack Lookout and carry it if possible. If Burnside can hold 
the line from Knoxville to Clinton, as I have asked him, for 
six days, I believe Bragg will be started back for south side 
of Oostanawla, and Longstreet cut off." 

Here then was Grant's great double thought — to fight the 
battle for one of his armies threatened at Knoxville a hundred 
miles distant, at Chattanooga ; to concentrate the other two 
there, and so make all co-operate in a grand movement which 
should eventuate in securing the advantages which the natural 
stronghold had so long promised to the Federal forces. Hal- 
leck grew more distrustful of Burnside's ability or willingness 
to hold on. But Grant had assurances of both, and worked 
away with characteristic industry and patience to complete his 
plans of action. 

Burnside had really never expressed a desire to retreat 
except to help Grant. On November 14th he reported to 
Grant that Longstreet was on the Holston river at Loudon, 
and intending to cross. He gave as his plan, to concen- 
trate in his front but not to fight him there. He would 
make a show of fight, and then retreat to Nashville so as to 
entice him so far away from Bragg that he could not have time 
to reinforce him should Grant's move at Chattanooga be suc- 
cessful. This looked like a full understanding of Grant's tac- 
tics and a wish to aid them. And on the 14th of November 
Grant sent him word to the effect that if he could hold Long- 
street in check, or by skirmishing and falling back avoid 
serious loss and gain time, " I will be able to force the enemy 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 1 79 

back from here and place a force between Longstreet and 
Bragg that must inevitably make the former take to the moun- 
tain passes by every available road, to get his supplies." 

As has been seen in the previous chapter, Sherman arrived 
at Bridgeport on November 13th and 14th. On November 
15th he was in Chattanooga. On the 16th he rode out with 
Grant and Thomas to the hills on the north bank of the Ten- 
nessee, from which could be seen the line of Missionary Ridge 
with its northeastern terminus on Chickamauga creek, the 
point where he was expected to make the crossing of the river 
and begin his attack. 

All in Chattanooga were impatient for action. Sherman's 
men had made a long and toilsome march of nearly four hun- 
dred miles, and, they were tired, shoeless and almost clotheless, 
but he saw enough of the condition of men and animals in the 
mountain- and enemy-begirt town to inspire him with renewed 
energy. He returned at once to Bridgeport, to bring up his 
army and dispose it for action. 

On November 1 8th Grant telegraphed Halleck : " Burnside's 
troops back to Knoxville. Sherman's advance reached Look- 
out Mountain to-day. Movements will progress threatening 
enemy's left flank until forces can be got up and thrown across 
the river to attack their right flank and Missionary Ridge. A 
battle or a falling back of the enemy is inevitable by Saturday 
at the furthest. Burnside speaks hopefully." 

The same day written orders were issued to Sherman and 
Thomas for the battle of Chattanooga, in all respects a unique 
contest, and one which was not only to relieve Burnside's 
army and the valley of the upper Tennessee, but all of Grant's 
armies, and further to open the way for active and offensive 
operations in the interior of Georgia and the heart of the Con- 
federacy. The aggressive spirit that now chafed for release from 
a pen-like area amid hostile mountains and impassable rivers 
was all unused to hampered situations and defensive lines. 



i8o 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



By means of repeated reconnoissances Grant had discovered 
that it was perfectly feasible to move any number of troops 
from points below Chattanooga, on the river, to points above, 
by keeping them well to the north of the stream, and back 
among the hills, out of sight of the enemy on the pinnacles 

of Lookout. He had fur- 
ther discovered that the 
north end of Missionary 
Ridge, near the mouth of 
Chickamauga creek, and 
really overlooking Chicka- 
mauga Station, Bragg's 
depot of supplies, was im- 
perfectly guarded. These 
discoveries were taken ad- 
vantage of to throw Sher- 
man's forces around north 
of Chattanooga and across 
the Tennessee to the south, 
near Chickamauga creek. 
They also determined Grant not to make too much of his 
contemplated movement on the Confederate left by way of 
the Lookout valley and ranges. He therefore detached 
Howard's corps from Hooker and ordered it to follow Sher- 
man, and reinforce Thomas in the centre, if necessary. 

The orders of Grant, issued on November 18th, contemplated 
the completion of all these movements by the 20th, and an 
attack on the morning of the 21st. Nothing that officers and 
men could do was left undone to bring the troops into the 
positions designated in time. Thomas strove with the energy 
of desperation to extend his centre out to the edges of 
Missionary Ridge, so as to co-operate with Sherman after the 
passage of the river. He strove equally to plant batteries so 
as to protect Sherman's crossing. But the horses were yet too 




GENERAL THOMAS. 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 



181 



few in number, and too weak, to meet the strain upon them. 
Sherman meanwhile was forcing his men over the hilly roads 
back of the river toward their destination. But the routes 
became fearfully cut up. The river rose and interfered with 
the pontoon bridges, both below at Brown's Ferry and above 
near the mouth of Chickamauga creek. He was obliged to 
inform Grant of the impossibility of performing his herculean 
task in the required time. So the proposed attack of the 2ist 
was compulsorily postponed. 

This filled Grant with alarm for Burnside's safety. He was 
not succeeding as he had expected in his promised diversion. 
Halleck was more than ever anxious about the fate of Knox- 
ville and East Tennessee. Grant's communications with 
Burnside had been cutoff, and he had heard nothing from him 
in two days. The last word was that 
he had been fighting Longstreet and 
had been driven into Knoxville. " I 
have never," wrote Grant to Halleck, 
"felt such restlessness before, as I 
have at the fixed and immovable con- 
dition of the Army of the Cumber- 
land." 

Seeing that attack on the morning 
of the 2 1 st was impossible, Grant, 
rising with the emergency, made his 
orders more peremptory for a hard 

combination of effort, so as to attack on the 22d. In this he 
was again disappointed, for the increasing rise in the river 
swept away the pontoons at Brown's Ferry and endangered 
all others on the river. Sherman could not get his forces up. 
Howard's corps, however, was more fortunate. It managed to 
get into Chattanooga, on the 22d, and was sent at once to a 
commanding position well out on Missionary Ridge. This 
was done that the Confederates might suppose the troops at 




GENERAL LONGSTREET. 



182 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



Brown's Ferry were reinforcing Chattanooga directly, and as a 
cover for both Sherman's movement and any movement of 
Hooker on their left at Lookout. 

Amid these disappointments, word came through a deserter, 
on the night of the 22d, that Bragg was preparing to fall back. 
Grant was unwilling to allow him to do this in good order. 
On the morning of the 23d he instructed Thomas to make a 
demonstration to ascertain the truth of the report, saying, " that 
if Bragg is really falling back, Sherman can commence at once 
to lay his pontoons at the mouth of South Chickamauga, and 
we can save a day." 

Thomas' demonstration was ready by 2 p. m. of the 23d, and 

it was prepared on an elaborate 
scale. Granger's Fourth Corps was 
pushed towards the enemy's posi- 
tion a mile beyond Fort Wood. His 
right was supported by Palmer's 
Fourteenth, and his centre and left 
by Howard's corps. The heavy 
guns from Fort Wood, and the 
artillery from smaller works, opened 
fire on the Confederates entrenched 
on the steep faces of Missionary 
Ridge. The cannon at Moccasin 
Point, below, opened on the enemy 
in their strong positions on Lookout, and the response was 
vigorous from these embattled heights. Under cover of this 
intense fire the deployment and advance of the Federals went 
on so regularly and deliberately as to give to the enemy the 
impression that a grand review was in progress. At last the 
skirmishers came in contact with the Confederate pickets along 
the foot-hills of Missionary Ridge, and drove them back up 
the eminences into their first line of rifle pits. Wood's division 
of Granger's command followed rapidly in the face of a severe 




GENERAL GRANGER. 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 1 83 

musketry fire and, capturing some two hundred prisoners, were 
in possession of the enemy's first lines before they could recover 
from their surprise or be reinforced from the main works on 
the ridge. In fifteen minutes, Sheridan, with another of Granger's 
divisions, fell in on Wood's right, and completed the capture 
of the entire advance lines of the Confederates. This left the 
enemy nothing west of the ridge and below its summits but a 
line of rifle pits at its base. It gave to Grant a strong point, 
called Orchard Knoll, and the low range of hills running south, 
about half way between Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge 
proper. These were fully occupied by Granger's corps during 
the night, and also by Howard's. Breastworks were thrown 
up, artillery was placed, and the whole front was strongly 
picketed. Thus two strong army corps lay entrenched a full 
mile in advance of the Federal position of the day before, and 
on ground occupied by the enemy. The casualties were small, 
not exceeding one hundred in killed and wounded. 

Had Bragg intended to retreat? This demonstration said, 
no. But he had started Buckner's division to help Longstreet, 
on the 22d, and another also, which were speedily recalled. 
Grant was at last relieving Burnside. He was doing vastly 
more. Perhaps no similar move ever had such a moral effect 
on contending armies. The Confederates felt secure in their 
apparently impregnable positions till this moment. The 
advance was a surprise. Its success was in the nature of a 
stunning blow. It shook their prestige, introduced the thought 
of danger, and began the work of demoralization. On the 
other hand, it diffused an assurance of victory through the 
Federal forces, gave them that action for which they had 
pined, and that opportunity for wiping out the stain of Chick- 
amauga for which they had longed. They were as if under 
an inspiration of faith in their commander, their officers, and 
themselves, while their cause needed just such a triumph as 
they felt the near future must yield. 



l$l LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The destruction of the pontoon bridge at Brown's Ferry 
below, and the failure of Sherman to promptly get his 
army to the north side of the Tennessee, revived in Grant's 
mind the original intent to make his move on the enemy's left 
at Lookout a bold and decisive one. Therefore all the forces 
in Lookout Valley, and south of the river at that point, were 
brought into requisition for a movement in conjunction with 
his own at Chattanooga. Hooker had there about ten thou- 
sand men, embracing Osterhaus' division of the Fourteenth 
Corps, Cruft's of the Fourth, and Geary's of the Twelfth. 
None of these divisions had ever been associated in battle. 
Geary's represented the Army of the Potomac ; Cruft's, the 
Army of the Cumberland ; Osterhaus', the Army of the Ten- 
nessee. They would vie with each other in the perilous task 
now before them. 

It will be recollected that a Federal force under Stevenson 
had already gotten a foothold on the west side of Lookout 
close to the Tennessee, and where Brown's Ferry could be 
protected. All the rest of the western slope, overlooking 
Lookout Valley and the Raccoon ranges further west, as well 
as the summits, were in the hands of the Confederates, and all 
strongly fortified with redoubts, redans, rifle-pits, abattis and 
stone walls. Behind these were seven thousand men. At the 
base of the mountains runs Lookout creek, which formed the 
western edge of the Confederate lines. Beyond the narrow 
valley at the foot of Raccoon Mountain was Hooker's 
encampment. 

Simultaneously with Grant's splendid move at Chattanooga, 
Hooker swept from his camps upon the enemy along Look- 
out creek and drove him from his first lines. Then Geary's 
division began to ascend the steep mountain sides, the men 
pulling themselves up by vines and branches, propping them- 
selves with their guns, scrambling and climbing amid obstruc- 
ting rocks and stones, dislodging the enemy wherever found, 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 



185 




GEN. HOOKER. 



for his artillery was of no account, and even the men in the 
rifle-pits could not use their weapons effectively in so close an 
attack on those steep hillsides. Geary was soon joined 
by other forces, and the victorious 
columns pressed on amid obstacles of 
a most extraordinary character. As 
the summits were neared the enemy's 
resistance became more stubborn and 
his fire more deadly. Still the Fed- 
erals pressed on, gaining point after 
point, fighting for the peaks and for 
the little plateau facing the Tennessee, 
which was really the Confederate 
centre on Lookout, as its army faced 

at first. After two or three sharp conflicts this plateau was 
cleared and Hooker had a front on the bluffs overlooking 
the Tennessee, where had frowned for weeks the Con- 
federate batteries. 

But now, 2 p. m., the battle had to cease. The clouds settled 
heavily down and enveloped these summits so as to give the 
appearance of darkness. But if Hooker could no longer fight 
he could hold what he had. He therefore made himself strong 
against attack, and worked his lines eastward toward Chatta- 
nooga. At five they reached the eastern edge of the moun- 
tain, overlooking the town, and found a brigade fighting its way 
upward to meet them. This was Carlin's brigade, sent out by 
Grant to open communications with Hooker as soon as he should 
round the peaks of Lookout, and begin to force his way east- 
ward. The lines met. Lookout was won. Hooker sent Grant 
word that " His lines were impregnable and commanded the 
enemy's defences with an enfilading fire." Thus by the night 
of the 24th of November the Federal army had an unbroken 
line of communication from Lookout Mountain through Chat- 
tanooga and to the north end of Missionary Ridge. 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I 87 

But what of Sherman and the left? He was struggling 
heroically against floods and difficult roads in order to get up 
to the South Chickamauga and make the pontoon crossing to 
the ends of Missionary Ridge. Would he be ready ? Not in 
time for Grant's demonstration of the 23d, yet in time for the 
morrow. One division was on the north side of the Tennessee 
ready to cross. Others were coming. Where were the pon- 
toons ? Five miles up hidden in the mouth of North Chicka- 
mauga creek, whither Smith's brigade was sent to man them. 
At midnight of the 23d each pontoon was boarded by thirty 
men, and seven hundred and fifty oarsmen piloted them down 
the river to the mouth of the South Chickamauga. So quietly 
did they move that neither Federal picket on the north side of 
the Tennessee nor Confederate on the south side knew of their 
passage. They stopped just above the mouth of the South 
Chickamauga, for it was designed to pontoon both that stream 
and the Tennessee. There a small band jumped ashore and 
rapidly captured the enemy's outposts before he was aware. 
Then the boats dropped below the creek, disembarked their 
men and lumber and were sent back for other material. 
Smith's men immediately began to entrench themselves. The 
balance of his division was hastily ferried over from the north 
side of the Tennessee to his support. This was followed by 
John E. Smith's division. By daylight eight thousand men 
were on the south side of the river and quite well protected. 

Though Grant had taken the precaution to have all the hills 
on the north studded with cannon to protect Sherman's cross- 
ing, he had thus far managed so secretly and dexterously as 
not to draw the attention of the enemy to his main object. 
But now daylight was coming, and the work of laying the pon- 
toon bridge was. about to begin. The wisdom of having tho^e 
forty pieces of cannon ranged so as to cover the operations was 
apparent. They gave the protection required. By noon of 
the 24th the bridge was complete, and Howard and Sherman 



155 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

shook hands upon its centre. The junction of the armies of 
the Tennessee and Cumberland was formed. Sherman sped 
the remainder of his forces across, and fast formed them for 
attack on the northern spurs of Missionary Ridge. The bridge 
across the South Chickamauga was already laid, and Long's 
cavalry had crossed both bridges on its way to cut the Con- 
federate communications with their depot of supplies at 
Chickamauga Station. 

As Sherman moved, his left, under Morgan L. Smith, fol- 
lowed South Chickamauga creek, his centre, under John E. 
Smith, moved squarely on toward the spurs, his right, under 
Ewing, moved in columns, prepared to deploy in any direction. 
The sky was heavily clouded, so that the view of the enemy 
from their heights was obscured. From the valley of Lookout 
to the North Chickamauga, a distance of thirteen miles, was 
now a continuous line of battle, all animated and expectant, all 
subject to a single will, faith in which was unbounded, whose 
directory vigor was felt in every single organization and move- 
ment like a strong pulse in a human body. 

At half-past three on the 24th, Sherman secured a desirable 
position on the elevated foot-hills of Missionary Ridge, and 
the enemy, for the first time, became aware of his movement. 
He instantly opened with artillery, but too late, for Sherman 
had dragged several guns up the steep slopes, which were 
opened in response. At four o'clock a violent charge was made 
on his lines which was repulsed. He was then left alone to 
fortify what he had gained. Howard's corps was then pushed 
in on his right, so as to make a close connection with Thomas. 

That night, the night of the 24th, the skies cleared and the 
camp-fires revealed to the enemy the fact that Sherman was in 
position. Grant's dispatch of that date to Washington is a 
graphic sketch of the scene : " The fight to-day progressed 
favorably. Sherman carried the end of Missionary Ridge, and 
his right is now at the railroad tunnel and his left at Chicka- 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I 89 

mauga creek. Troops from Lookout Valley carried the point 
of the mountain and now hold the eastern slope and point high 
up. Hooker reports two thousand prisoners taken, besides 
which a small number have fallen into our hands from Mis- 
sionary Ridge." 

To this the President replied in person on the 25th : " Well 
done. Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside." And 
Halleck thus : " I congratulate you on the success thus far of 
your plans. I fear that Burnside is hard pushed and that any 
delay may prove fatal. I know that you will do all in your 
power to relieve him." 

During the night the Confederates evacuated Lookout and 
retreated by way of Rossville to Missionary Ridge. At sun- 
rise the national flag floated on the Lookout crests. Hooker 
pushed after the retreating enemy, but was detained at Chatta- 
nooga creek, the bridge having been burned. He was to take 
position so as to guard and hold Rossville gap, and operate 
on the enemy's left on Missionary Ridge. 

The morning sun of the 25th shone brightly on one of the 
most momentous battle-fields of the war. Bragg's headquar- 
ters were visible on the ridge. Grant and Thomas had theirs 
on Orchard Knoll. Sherman was in the saddle early, pros- 
pecting his left on Chickamauga creek. Orders had been 
issued the night before for a grand attack in the morning. 
Sherman's was the post of danger, and the point of main 
onset and resistance. Before him was a depression, heavily 
wooded. It was the approach to the fortified heights on the 
enemy's right, and would be defended with all the strength he 
could wield. 

A little after sunrise the bugle sounded for an advance. 
Case's brigade of Ewing's division pressed valorously forward, 
and its general fell. Loomis', Raum's, Mathias', and indeed, 
Sherman's whole force, were quickly in action, gaining ground 
here, losing there, everywhere meeting with stubborn resist- 



190 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



ance. The Federal objective point was the first foot-hill 
beyond the depression in their front. It was within eighty 
yards of the enemy's regular entrenchments, and its posses- 
sion would give control of the railroad bridge over the 
Chickamauga. The contest for this grew close and desperate, 




GEN. SHERMAN, 

and the Federals only secured it after four hours of persistent 
and bloody fighting. Bragg now saw the danger that threat- 
ened him. He weakened his centre and massed his forces on 
his right, but notwithstanding a determined assault, he could 
not dislodge the Federals. They held what they had so 
hardly earned, and Bragg saw a foe firmly fixed on his 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I9I 

flank and threatening his rear where his supplies lay. He 
looked down into the valley, and saw supporting columns hur- 
rying to Sherman. This impressed him with the fact that 
Grant's intention was to scale the ridge at the northern end. 
He therefore threw other reinforcements in that direction, and 
in the afternoon succeeded in staying Sherman's progress and 
in driving back his right under John E. Smith. 
1 Grant was watching the operations with anxious eyes. He 
offered to help Sherman, but the old hero sent word back that 
he had all the force he wanted. He knew his hour of relief 
would come as soon as Grant moved his centre. All day 
Grant and Thomas had witnessed Bragg's fatal movement of 
troops from his centre toward his right, and while they feared 
for Sherman they were delighted with the advantage it opened 
to them. But where was Hooker ? He was to appear on the 
Confederate left from the direction of Rossville gap, and was 
to sweep up the narrow Chattanooga Valley and along the 
edges of Missionary Ridge. As has been seen, the burning of 
the bridge over Chattanooga creek detained him, but he had 
sent word he was in the gap and would be up in a few hours. 

Trusting that he would appear in time, Grant determined to 
assault with his centre. Turning to Thomas, he ordered the 
attack. Six guns were fired from Orchard Knoll as a signal, 
and the eager troops sprang forward in splendid order, their 
front covered by a cloud of daring skirmishers. Johnston's, 
Sheridan's, Wood's and Baird's divisions all moved simulta- 
neously, with orders to capture the rifle-pits at the foot of the 
ridge and then, reforming there, to scale the heights. 

The immediate front of the Federals was an open wood. 
Then came a clear, smooth plain some four to nine hundred 
yards wide. Next was the enemy's line of rifle-pits. Back 
of them was the steep slope of the ridge, timbered, pitted, 
rugged, rising five hundred yards to the summit. As soon as 
the Federals began to move they were met by a tremendous 



192 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

artillery fire from the ridge, but they marched steadily through 
the wood. At the edge of the plain they closed their 
columns, charged on the double-quick, and carried an irre- 
sistible line of gleaming bayonets across the open space in 
the face of the enemy's musketry and a plunging fire from the 
heights. Not a shot was fired in turn, but as the glistening 
lines of steel approached the Confederate works the effect was 
to carry dismay to those who thought themselves safely pro- 
tected. They threw themselves prostrate in the trenches, and 
the Federal charge swept over them. A thousand prisoners 
were captured and sent to the rear. Others fled rapidly up 
the steep slopes. The charge was a magnificent one, and all 
the forces engaged reached the long lines of rifle-pits near 
together. 

The orders were to halt and reform for the ascent. But the 
impulse to follow this preliminary success was too strong. 
The men took to the slopes in wild, ungovernable desire to 
scale them and complete their victory at the top. They were 
met by a raking fire from the second line of works about half 
way up, and by enfilading fires of canister from the summits. 
Many color-bearers fell, and the havoc was general. But 
neither thinned ranks nor toilsome climbing broke the ascend- 
ing lines. Up, up, they pushed, steadily here, rapidly there, 
close after the retiring foe. The crests were reached simulta- 
neously at six different points, and the victorious streams 
began to pour into the upper trenches and to swarm around 
the batteries. Whole regiments surrendered. Artillerists were 
bayoneted and their guns captured. Panic seized the remain- 
der, who began a hasty retreat down the eastern slopes of the 
ridge. The route of the centre was general and complete. 
Bragg could not believe it, so confident was he of the strength 
of his position, even against a greatly superior force. He 
therefore made strenuous exertions to reform his lines again, 
but was dismayed to find that the Federals had also crowned 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I 93 

the ridge on his right. A few moments afterward the divi- 
sions from his left began to crowd in upon his broken centre 
in confusion, and then he learned that his left, too, had 
been turned. There was nothing to do but to organize 
retreat and save what was possible from the wreck. Brecken- 
ridge and Hardee gathered up the broken detachments, as 
best they could, and fell back toward the depot at Chicka- 
mauga creek. Fortunately it was near night, and the retreat 
would be along familiar roads. 

When Grant saw his forces climbing the ridge after their 
success at the first line of rifle pits, he could not remain "longer 
at his point of observation on Orchard Knoll, but galloped to 
the front, with his staff, and began to mount the ridge also. 
The wounded forgot their pain as he passed, and cried out, 
" We've gained the day, general ! " " We're even with them 
now for Chickamauga! " "All we wanted was a leader!" He 
worked his way up the steeps and into the midst of the fray 
at the top, where he was exposed to the enemy's heaviest fire. 
His desire to see the victory made complete, overcame for the 
time his discretion. 

Here he took in the whole situation. It was apparent that 
the enemy's centre was hopelessly broken. The cannonading 
to the south and the confused surging of Confederate divisions 
northward told him that Hooker had rebuilt the burned bridge 
across the Chattanooga, had gained the crests on the enemy's 
left, and was sweeping all before him. And as to Sherman, he 
knew that he would not only hold on, but would take advan- 
tage of the turn in the tide to force in the enemy's right. 
Therefore he organized as speedily as circumstances would 
permit for effective pursuit. But night intervened ere the 
ridge was cleared. From the eastern verges Bragg, who had 
barely escaped capture, was seen in the valley below with his 
disorganized troops and a large wagon train, together with 
artillery, seeking the protection of a high ridge still farther 

13 



1 94 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



east, on which was posted several batteries and an infantry 
reserve. Sheridan, who was at the head of the pursuing 




GEN. SHERIDAN. 

columns, could not resist the temptation presented by such a 
prize. His men plunged down the eastern slopes of the ridge 
and across the narrow valley. Then, as a few hours before on 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. I 95 

the western side, they began to clamber up this less difficult 
range on either flank of the enemy's regiments, artillery and 
wagon train. Gaining the summit, they closed on the road- 
way and captured the entire train, most of the guns and many 
men. Not yet content, the pursuit was kept up, though it was 
long after nightfall, till the Confederates passed the South 
Chickamauga by bridges which they burned. Then the tired 
victors went into bivouac, passing their cheers back from ridge 
to ridge, and regiment to regiment, till all the hills and val- 
leys rang with their glad good-night salvos. Chickamauga 
was avenged. Grant ere he slept sent the* following to Hal- 
leck : " Although the battle has lasted from early dawn till 
dark this evening, I believe I am not premature in announcing 
a complete victory over Bragg." To which Halleck responded 
on the 26th : " I congratulate you and your army on the vic- 
tories of Chattanooga. This is truly a day of thanksgiving." 

But though victory was complete and all the mountain 
ranges encircling Chattanooga were rid of the enemy, though 
the troops were exhausted by their three days of active 
manoeuvring and hard fighting, there must be no remission 
of effort. Bragg must not be allowed to retreat toward Burn- 
side. Sherman had already been warned, and had pushed his 
left well toward Cleveland on the railroad running to Knox- 
ville. Bragg therefore turned south, and Hooker was ordered 
to pursue rapidly the next morning with the hope of cutting 
off his new troops and trains. Granger was ordered to march 
up the south side of the Tennessee with a force of twenty 
thousand men to strike Longstreet in the rear and relieve 
Burnside at Knoxville. Thomas was to supervise the direct 
pursuit of Bragg, and to contribute all the strength he could 
spare to it. 

The next day Bragg was closely followed. He burned his 
supply depot at Chickamauga creek, and hurriedly pushed 
toward Dalton, leaving evidences everywhere in his trail of 



I96 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

his haste and demoralization. Just before reaching Dalton, at 
a gap twenty -two miles south of Chattanooga, the pursuit was 
checked for a time by the rear guard of the enemy who occu- 
pied a strong position, and offered battle. They were not dis- 
lodged till after a sharp fight in which some two hundred were 
killed and wounded on both sides. Hooker was then ordered 
to discontinue the pursuit and hold the gap. The railroad 
was destroyed from Dalton almost to Cleveland, and all direct 
communication cut off between Bragg and Longstreet. 

The battle of Chattanooga was the grandest fought west of 
the Alleghenies during the Civil War, and was in many respects 
the most remarkable in history. It covered an extent of thir- 
teen miles, and Grant had sixty thousand men engaged, while 
Bragg, in his report of December 10th, reported fifty-eight 
thousand seven hundred and fifty-five men present, of whom forty 
three thousand and ninety-four were effective. The Federal 
losses were 757 killed, 4529 wounded and 330 missing; total 
5616. The enemy's losses in killed and wounded were less, 
owing to the nature of the ground and their entrenched posi- 
tions, but their total losses must have approximated 10,000, as 
they left 6140 prisoners behind, 69 pieces of artillery and 7000 
small arms. 

No battle, ancient or modern, ever reflected greater credit 
for generalship on a commander. The situation was wholly 
desperate till Grant's arrival. He found an army hemmed in, 
demoralized, without clothing, starving, immovable as to guns, 
wagons, animals and paraphernalia. He was a new officer, in 
a new field, and in command of three armies that had not 
hitherto fought together or even actively co-operated. His 
lieutenants were fortunately without jealousy, were able and 
loyal, and men who would disappoint no confidence, but 
they were occupying wide areas, and had to be hurriedly 
brought together with their forces, or strongly supported 
where they were. In fact the army of Chattanooga had to be 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 1 9/ 

first rescued and reorganized and reinforced before it could 
rescue itself, and above all, effect the rescue of Burnside at 
Knoxville. 

We have seen how General Grant went about his work 
of rescue ; how he opened the Tennessee below and estab- 
lished communications with Nashville ; how he urged and 
helped Sherman in his long weary march ; how he looked up 
every strategic point in and about Chattanooga ; how he con- 
centrated and manoeuvred for positions ; how he ordered and 
fought, first with Hooker for the enemy's left on the heights 
of Lookout, then with Sherman for the enemy's right on Mis- 
sionary Ridge, and again at an opportune moment, and when 
the menace was complete on both wings, how he let loose his 
invincible centre under Thomas, scaled the entrenched heights, 
and broke the enemy in twain. Notwithstanding obstacles of 
march, river crossing, abrupt mountain side, heavy and fre- 
quent entrenchment, uncertainty of skirmish and charge, every 
movement was ordered with intelligence and made with 
promptitude and precision. No corps, division nor brigade was 
out of time. No vital object failed. Every subordinate excelled 
in rare good management of his men; and the courage, en- 
durance and enthusiasm of the men were without parallel. 

It was a battle of monumental plans and grand executions. 
Vicksburg had been all preliminary strategy and then pertina- 
cious stick. Shiloh had been stubborn, close fighting. Chat- 
tanooga was giant manoeuvre in sight of a fortified enemy, a 
complete outwitting of his keenest suspicions, a herculean 
move, involving the finest co-operations on the part of lieu- 
tenants and bravest efforts of a gallant soldiery. It was two 
grand battles in one, for it meant not only the defeat of Bragg 
on the hill tops around Chattanooga and the driving of him 
back to where the waters run toward the gulf, but the relief 
of Burnside, at Knoxville, and the Federal control of East 
Tennessee. 



I98 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

And it was equally extraordinary in other respects. The 
results were of great permanent value. This was a character- 
istic of all Grant's battles. He made his victories tell. He 
organized and fought for results. The results of Chattanooga 
were acquisition of vast territory, a way to Atlanta and the 
heart of the Confederacy, and finally through that heart to 
the sea, the erection of a fortified menace on- the very spot 
which had for years been a threat to the North. The result to 
the country was the lifting of the terrible Chickamauga cloud 
and a bursting in of sunlight upon a situation which had been 
dark and a source of the gloomiest foreboding. Its effects on 
the armies were remarkable. Three separate hosts had for 
the first time fought together under a single and trusted com- 
mander. The Potomac, the Cumberland, the Mississippi, had 
blended their chivalry to win combined honors. The Potomac, 
under Hooker, had fought the enemy's left off Lookout and 
Missionary Ridge. The Mississippi, under Sherman, had 
fought the enemy's right up the Missionary foothills. The 
Cumberland, under Thomas, had scaled the heights of the 
centre and broken the enemy into fragments. United they 
were invincible, but the union must be just such as Chat a- 
nooga showed to be possible, a union of force, discipline, 
heart, under a genius in whom confidence was boundless, and 
a spirit that was all presiding. The experiment of uniting 
departments and armies under one master mind had met with 
the endorsement of a magnificent, timely and most fruitful 
victory, and the destiny of the calm, determined, yet anxious 
and brilliant, leader was further foreshadowed. It remained for 
the authorities, to act upon the proofs which Chattanooga sup- 
plied, both as to the wisdom of and necessity for a central and 
supreme commandership. Happily circumstances were rapidly 
shaping to that end, and none more powerfully than the exist- 
ence of one whose deeds declared him worthy the high distinc- 
tion and equal to the great responsibility. 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 1 99 

The following shows the organization of the contending 
armies at Chattanooga : 

Commanding United States Forces. — Major General Ulysses S. Grant. 

Army of the Cumberland. — Commander, Major General George H. 

Thomas. 

Fourth Corps, f J f T P iv -- r Ia J r Gen P D ; T S Q ? tan !f y ' 

■Kjr- ran r^ a n i 2d ^ 1V - — M a J- Gen - P- H. Sheridan, 

Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger. j ^ Diy _ Bri ^ Gen , T< j, Wood . 

Eleventh Corps, f 2d Div. — Brig. Gen. A. Von Steinwher, 

Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard. \ 3d Div.— Maj. Gen. C. Schurz. 

Twelfth Corps, i 1st Div.— Brig. Gen. A. S. Williams, 

Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum. \ 2d Div. — Brig. Gen. J. W. Geary. 

[Commanding the tzuo corps. — Maj. Gen. J. Hooker.] 



t? , j7 ~ . r 1st Div. — Brig. Gen. R. W. Tohi 

fourteenth Corps, ] , y^. t> • /-> t /- t\ • 

• n t at t> 1 i 2d Div. — Brig. Gen. J. C. Davis, 

11. Gen. T. M. Palmer. j , ^. t> ■ r- a -o • 1 

J J 1 3d Div. — Brig. Gen. A. Band. 



1st Div. — Brig. Gen. R. W. Johnston, 
Maj. Gen. J. 

[Part of this corps reported to Sherman.] 



Cavalry Corps, f 1st Div.— Col. E. M. McCook, 

Brig. Gen. W. L. Elliot. \ 2d Div. — Brig. Gen. George Crook. 

Part of Anny of the Tennessee. — Commander, Major General W. T. 
Sherman. 

f 1st Div.— Brig. Gen. P. J. Osterhaus, 
Fifteenth Cort>s I [reported to General Hooker]. 

Fzfieenm Cor P s,^ Div.-Brig. Gen. ML. Smith, 

3d Div. — Brig. Gen. J. E. Smith, 
4th Div. — Brig. Gen. Hugh Ewing. 



Maj. Gen. F. P. Blair. 



Confederate Army. — Commander, General Braxton Bragg. 

[ Commanders^ 
f Maj. Gen. P. R. Cleburne, 
Right Wing, j Brig. Gen. S. R. List, 

Lieut. Gen. W. J. Hardee. ] Maj. Gen. B. F. Cheatham, 

[ Maj. Gen. C. L. Stevenson. 

[ Com manders. ] 
f Maj. Gen. A. P. Stewart, 
Left Wing, J Brig. Gen. P. Anderson, 

Maj. Gen. J. C. Breckinridge. j Maj. Gen. S. B. Buckner, 

[ Brig. Gen. Lewis. 

Cavalry, j 1st Div. — Brig. Gen. J. A. Wharton, 

Maj. Gen. J. Wheeler. \ 2d Div. — Brig. Gen. W. Martin. 



CHAPTER XL 

CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. ' 

WE have had a glimpse of the bearing of the battle of 
Chattanooga on the fortunes of Burnside's army in East 
Tennessee. Let us take a hasty view of the situation there. 
Early in November, 1863, Bragg, feeling all too sure of his 
positions around Chattanooga, and that time only was required 
to force the Federals into retreat or capitulation, dispatched 
Longstreet with a large and excellent corps to operate against 
Burnside, who was at Knoxville, and had pushed a strong 
advance of twelve thousand men down along the railroad to the 
Holsten river, across which a pontoon bridge had been built. 

It was here that Longstreet first met him. Burnside's policy, 
as has been seen in the previous chapter, was not to fight, but 
to keep up shows of battle, in order to risk nothing on his part, 
and at the same time draw Longstreet so far away from Bragg, 
at Chattanooga, as to put mutual reinforcement out of the 
question, should the fate of Chattanooga require it. And then, 
if Grant should be successful there, and should drive Bragg 
southward, Longstreet could be marched upon from the rear 
and forced into the devious by-ways of the mountains, perhaps 
captured. This was Grant's plan, and Burnside was to second 
it by his shows of battle and retreats. 

He therefore burned his bridge across the Holsten, on the 
approach of Longstreet, prepared for battle on the north side 
of the river, and after administering a severe check, fell back 
to Campbell's Station, where he again made a stubborn stand. 
His next retreat was to Knoxville, which was well fortified, 






CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 201 

though but poorly provisioned. This he intended to hold as 
long as possible, in expectation of hearing from Grant and find- 
ing succor through and by means of a decisive turn of affairs 
at Chattanooga. 

Longstreet tried the defences of Knoxville, on November 
1 8th, but finding them too strong for direct capture, he invested 
the place, determined to starve Burnside out. He was reinforced 
by several small commands from Virginia, and began to 
manoeuvre so as to cut off all sources of Federal supply. In 
this he was confidently engaged when he was startled by the 
defeat of Bragg, at Chattanooga. He knew what this meant. 
It made every moment precious to him. He determined on 
an assault before Grant could send relief. On November 29th, 
he threw three brigades of McLaw's division, with murderous 
energy, on Fort Sanders, near the northwest angle of Burnside's 
workg, supporting them with the rest of his force. The ditches 
were reached and rapidly filled by the assaulting forces. But 
a merciless fire of canister was opened on them from the 
salients, and they were mowed down ere they could scale the 
parapet. Again and again they were repulsed, and finally 
broke in confusion, some preferring surrender to retreat back 
over ground subjected to so hot a fire. This rash experiment 
cost Longstreet a thousand men in killed, wounded and pris- 
oners. The Federal loss was only thirteen. 

Just then Longstreet received word from President Davis 
that Bragg had been defeated by Grant at Chattanooga, and 
that he should hasten to his succor. He started, but hearing 
that the Federal troops were already at Cleveland, on the line 
of the railroad, and knowing that he could not hope to reach 
Bragg, he wisely returned to the siege of Knoxville, trusting 
thus to divert Grant from pursuit of Bragg. 

Immediately after the victory at Chattanooga, Grant ordered 
Granger's Fourth Corps to march rapidly to the relief of Knox- 
ville. But that general delayed, and Sherman, who had been 



202 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ordered to Hiawasse, was directed to assume command of the 
relief movement, and push it with all his energy. The situation 
at Knoxville was getting desperate, on account of the scarcity 
of provisions. Grant was fully advised of this, and sent Burn- 
side the following dispatch, written in duplicate/with the intent 
that one copy should be let fall into the hands of the enemy: 

" I congratulate you on the tenacity with which you have 
thus far held out against superior forces. Do not be forced 
into surrender by short rations. Take all that the citizens have, 
to enable you to hold out a few days longer. As soon as you 
are relieved from the presence of the enemy, you can replace 
everything taken from them. Within a few days you will be 
relieved. There are now three columns in motion for your 
relief. One from here, moving up the south bank of the river, 
under Sherman; one from Decherd, under Elliott (this move- 
ment suffered delay) ; one from Cumberland Gap, under raster. 
These three columns will be able to crush Longstreet's forces, 
or drive them from the valley, and must all of them be within 
twenty-four hours' march of you, by the time this reaches you, 
supposing you to get it on Tuesday, the 1st." (Dec.) 

Sherman infused all his energy into his tired forces, and soon 
had the Eleventh and Fifteenth Corps hastening toward Knox- 
ville, building bridges, making forced marches, driving off an 
intercepting enemy at crossings and from available points. 
Elliott was sent ahead with a large cavalry force, and orders to 
reach Knoxville at all hazards. Grant's dispatch fell into the 
hands of Longstreet, as designed. It had the effect anticipated. 
That officer immediately raised the siege of Knoxville, and 
made hasty preparations to escape the ingatheiing of the 
Federal forces. By December 4th, his lines of investment were 
entirely broken up and his troops in retreat. On the same 
date Sherman reached Knoxville, so that Longstreet got away 
none too soon. Grant's express orders were to pursue the 
enemy, capture, if possible, at least drive him entirely from the 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 



203 



valley. Sherman deferred to Burnside in command of the 
Department, and that officer feeling strong enough for future 
operations with Granger's Fourth Corps, sent Sherman with 
the Fifteenth Corps back toward Chattanooga, so as to be 
within striking distance of Thomas, in case Bragg should again 
assume the offensive. But Burnside miscalculated. He lost 
valuable time which should have been occupied in active pur- 
suit of the enemy, as Grant had designed and ordered. True, 
he sent Major-General Parke, with Manson's and Potter's 
commands, after Longstreet's fleeing 
forces, but only to find out what every 
army and naval officer should know, 
that " a stern chase is necessarily a 
long one." Longstreet escaped to 
the south of the Holsten river, where 
he was protected from pursuit by the 
approach of winter. In the spring, 
he joined his army to that under Lee, 
in Virginia. On November nth, 
Burnside was removed by Halleck, 
General-in-Chief at Washington, and 
General J. G. Foster, who had pushed his relief columns through 
the Cumberland Gap, and arrived in Knoxville on the 10th, 
was given command of the Department of the Ohio. 

Although Grant's intention to "crush Longstreet" had been 
frustrated, his other thought to " drive him out of East Ten- 
nessee," was more nearly carried out, rather by virtue of the 
masterly concentration of troops for the purpose than by the 
uses which Burnside made of them after they came under his 
control. And when it became apparent that East and 
Southern Tennessee were safe and that military operations 
must cease for the winter, and further, when the full effects of 
Grant's Chattanooga campaigns began to be realized, there 
came a response from the Government and country such as 




GEN. J. G. FOSTER. 



204 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



few military officers have ever drawn and fewer still more 
highly deserved. 

On December 8th, President Lincoln telegraphed out of the 
fullness of a grateful heart the following : " Understanding, that 
your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now secure, 
I wish to tender you and all under your command my more 
than thanks, my profoundest gratitude for the skill, courage 
and perseverance with which you and they, over so great diffi- 
culties, have affected that important object. God bless you 
all ! " 

On the 7th, the day before the above dispatch was sent, the 
President appointed a day of thanksgiving recommending " all 




GRANT'S MEDAL, 



loyal people to assemble in their places of worship and 
return thanks to God for this great advancement of the 
national cause." On December 17th, Congress unanimously 
voted a resolution of "thanks to Major-General Ulysses S. 
Grant and the officers and soldiers who have fought under his 
command during this rebellion." A gold medal was struck, 
which the President was authorized to present to General 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 205 

Grant " in the name of the people of the United States of 
America." The Legislatures of various States voted him reso- 
lutions of thanks. As if to show appreciation which could not 
be measured by words, a movement was set on foot in the 
Congress to revive the ancient and highly honorable grade of 
lieutenant-general and to confer it upon Grant, together with a 
call to the chief command of all the armies of the United 
States. The measure did not go through at once, but it was 
already clear that appreciation of exalted service was co-operat- 
ing with exigency in military affairs in such a way as to make 
its final passage desirable. 

In the midst of all these rejoicings and fervent expressions 
of thanks, and heart-felt manifestations of gratitude, and 
proffers of added honors, the modest, unmoved general was 
quietly disposing of his forces for the winter, carefully turning 
over plans for the spring, and anxiously working on his 
official report of stewardship since the consolidation of the 
Western Departments. One clause from this report shows all 
the man: "The armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, 
for their energy and unsurpassed bravery in the three days' 
battle of Chattanooga, their patient endurance in marching to 
the relief of Knoxville; and the army of the Ohio for its 
masterly defence of Knoxville and repeated repulses of Long- 
street's assaults upon that place, are deserving of the gratitude 
of the country." Self is lost sight of. His able lieutenants, 
his brave men, his invincible armies — these deserve, these only 
receive, mention and the meed of praise. 

With time on his hands to look over the situation, Grant 
saw the error, due to Burnside's tardiness, of permitting 
Longstreet to stop inside the State of Tennessee. On 
December 17th, he wrote to Washington, saying: "I feel 
deeply interested in moving the enemy beyond Saltville this 
winter, so as to be able to select my own campaign in the 
spring, instead of having the enemy dictate it for me." Foster 



206 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

was ordered to observe matters closely, and to take advantage 
of any winter opportunity that offered to force the enemy 
further east. This was in keeping with all of Grant's military 
plans. He knew well the value of an initiative blow, and 
to such had been due Paducah, Belmont, Donelson, Vicks- 
burg and Chattanooga. The enemy had struck first at 
Shiloh, Corinth and Iuka, and had made Federal victory 
costly. 

He studied over the feasibility of a mid-winter campaign 
into Georgia and directly against Bragg. But the roads were 
bad, the country mountainous, and supplies scarce. Nothing 
offered to warrant a move in this direction before spring. He 
however revived his old scheme of a campaign against 
Mobile, and submitted it to the authorities at Washington, 
where it was again received coldly. 

Immediately after the battle of Chattanooga, Bragg was 
relieved of the command of the Confederate army and suc- 
ceeded by Hardee. This was a repetition of the fatality 
which overhung the Confederate generals opposed to Grant. 
Floyd, Pillow, Buckner, Van Dorn, Price, Pemberton, Bragg, 
had either surrendered outright, or succumbed to an inexor- 
able sentiment engendered by their defeat. 

In order to aid Foster in his efforts to harass Lonestreet 
and drive him further east, Grant went to Knoxville in person 
about Christmas. The winter had by this time settled deeply. 
Foster was suffering from the outbreak of an old wound 
received in the Mexican War. The men were not properly 
shod or clad. Many were going home by reason of expira- 
tion of term of service, and their places would not be filled 
before spring. The matter of supplies was precarious. 
Nothing could be done but to make such disposition of the 
forces as would give them new foraging ground, and present 
them as squarely to the enemy as possible when the time 
came for a movement. 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 



207 




GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN. 



The depth of winter found General John A. Logan's com 
mand stretched along the railroad 
between Stevenson and Decatur, 
part of Hurlbut's along the Nash- 
ville and Decatur road, the Elev- 
enth and Twelfth Corps along the 
road from Nashville to Chatta- 
nooga, the Fourteenth at Chatta- 
nooga, Granger's force between 
Cleveland and Knoxville. Sher- 
man was sent to Memphis and 
Vicksburg in person to superin- 
tend the disposition and move- 
ment of forces so as to prevent 
a winter invasion of Mississippi. McPherson, at Vicksburg, 
was notified of this, and ordered to dispatch a cavalry force 
through the State to clean out Forrest, who was, with detached 
bands of troops, harrassing smaller towns therein and in 
Western Tennessee. This was the cavalry part of what after- 
ward became the celebrated Meridian raid. 

On January 13th, 1864, Grant returned from Knoxville by 
way of Cumberland Gap and Lexington to Nashville, where 
he made his headquarters. This journey made in mid-winter 
was full of hardship and danger. The mountains were cov- 
ered with ice and snow and the thermometer was ten degrees 
below zero. In many places it was impossible to ride, and 
Grant and his party were compelled to dismount and lead 
their horses. The general in advance had many falls, but 
suffered no material injury. A few days after his arrival at 
Nashville, he was suddenly called to St. Louis by the dangerous 
illness of one of his children. Hurrying through the country 
in the modest dress of a citizen, he studiously avoided all public 
ovation and display, and as soon as the danger which threatened 
his son had passed returned in the same way to his headquarters. 



208 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

On the 15th he dispatched to Halleck that Sherman would 
be ready to start from Vicksburg by the 24th with a force of 
twenty thousand men to destroy all the railroads in Northern 
Mississippi "so effectually that the enemy will not attempt to 
rebuild them again during the rebellion. He will then return 
unless opportunity of going into Mobile with the force he has 
appears perfectly plain." It seems that Grant could not give 
up the idea of capturing Mobile, much less letting the enemy 
rest in parts where winter operations were possible. 

By this time he had so far matured his plans for a spring 
campaign as to present them to the authorities at Washington, 
which he did on January 15th, and in the letter just quoted 
from he said: "I look upon the next line for me to secure, to 
be that from Chattanooga to Mobile; Montgomery and At- 
lanta being the important intermediate points. To do this, 
large supplies must be secured on the Tennessee river, so as 
to be independent of the railroad from here (Nashville) to the 
Tennessee for a considerable length of time. Mobile would 
be a second base. The destruction which Sherman will do to 
the roads around Meridian will be of material importance to 
us in preventing the enemy from drawing supplies from the 
Mississippi, and in clearing that section of all large bodies of 
rebel troops. I do not look upon any points, except Mobile 
in the south and the Tennessee river in the north, as present- 
ing practicable starting points from which to operate against 
Atlanta and Montgomery." 

In the discussion over the features of these plans which was 
held between Grant and the authorities at Washington, he 
clearly foreshadowed that grand movement under Sherman 
which had Atlanta for its base and which ended in the historic 
"march to the sea." To all doubts about the ability of his 
generals to take charge of and carry to success an independent 
movement of the magnitude contemplated, he repeatedly in- 
sisted that both Sherman and McPherson were officers of 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 200, 

such experience and reliability as to be confidently trusted 
with separate and distant commands for any purpose. 

By February ist, 1864, Sherman was on the move from 
Vicksburg with two divisions of the Sixteenth Corps, under 
Hurlbut, two of the Seventeenth under McPherson and a bri- 
gade of cavalry under Colonel Winslow. Smith, Grant's 
chief of cavalry, swept out from Memphis with a large force, 
and with orders to join Sherman at Meridian. These columns 
moved invincibly forward, although confronted by Loring, 
French and S. D. Lee, with a considerable strength of infan- 
try and cavalry. On February 4th, Sherman entered Jackson, 
and on the next day crossed the Pearl river. Thence he 
marched rapidly on Meridian, pausing only to build bridges 
and destroy railroads. On February 14th, he entered Meri- 
dian, the Confederate forces under Polk having evacuated the 
place without offering serious opposition. From this point he 
spread railroad destruction in every direction, and burned all 
storehouses and supplies. The Confederates were reinforced 
and returned to attack him. Sherman gathered in his forces, 
and ai Smith had not yet put in an appearance with his eight 
thousand cavalry, he resolved to not risk a battle, but to 
retreat. On the 20th, McPherson started back to Jackson, and 
the rest of the force made a detour with the hope of meeting 
Smith. Failing in this, it concentrated at Canton, where word 
cane that Smith had gotten mo further than West Point, 
whence he had been forced to retreat by Forrest's cavalry. 
Thus what Grant at first thought might prove a move which 
would end in the capture of Mobile, turned out to be only a 
magnificent raid. But it was not without its value, both in 
the crippling of the enemy by the destruction of railroads and 
supplies, and in proving that vigilance must not yet be relaxed 
even in sections which were thought comparatively safe. Its 
moral effect on the Confederates was great. Never before had 
a Federal army penetrated so far into the Confederacy; 
14 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 



211 



immense excitement prevailed everywhere. Farragut was 
making a naval demonstration against the forts of Mobile, and 
it was feared that Sherman was bound directly for the place 
to make a land attack. Reinforcements were hurried to Polk 
from Mobile and from Johnston's (Johnston had succeeded 
Hardee) army in front of Thomas. But Sherman was with- 
out a supply line, and a long way from any permanent base, 
and he retreated as above seen. 

This ended Grant's immediate supervision of the armies in 
the southwest. But he was all the time busy at Nashville. 
He had urged Schofield, who had succeeded Foster at Knox- 
ville, to prepare for a movement on Longstreet. That officer 
had talked the whole matter over 
with Foster, and their opinion was 
that Longstreet could not be success- 
fully disturbed before spring. In 
this joint judgment of two very able 
and trusty officers Grant finally 
acquiesced. Thomas was, however, 
ordered to make a demonstration 
against Johnston at Dalton, so as to 
keep him from sending reinforce- 
ments to any army that might be 
opposing Sherman's southern move- 
ment. He moved from Chattanooga 

with a strong force and penetrated as far as Dalton, but found 
the roads in fearful condition, and all the strong points well 
guarded by the enemy. Nothing could be done but leave an 
advance posted well toward Dalton and wait the building of 
the railroad and the return of spring. 

The campaigns of the West and Southwest in the year 1863, 
had been very remarkable. Wherever they had been con- 
ducted on the principle of separate and selfish action they 
were fatal. Wherever they had been conducted on the prin- 




GEN. SCHOFIELD. 



212 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ciple of concentrated, co-operative action, splendid victories 
resulted. Most of all had this been made apparent by that 
union of departments and concert of forces which brought 
Grant to Chattanooga and paved the way for that great victory 
and the relief of East Tennessee. But while the government 
was willing to accept a logic which was clear — to wit, the 
necessity for combined movement of all its armies under a 
single, clearheaded, fearless and faithful leadership, it had not 
as yet struck the man in whose genius it could have implicit 
confidence. The amiable and popular McClellan, the well- 
meaning and over prudent Halleck, had fallen short in the 
essentials necessary to make victories sure and profitable. 
They therefore failed to inspire the authorities with that hard, 
severe, unquestioned confidence whose existence only could 
justify the placing of supreme control of the armies and the 
destinies of the country absolutely in their hands. 

At a very early period in the war, Secretary Stanton had 
become impressed with the importance of unified superintend- 
ence and effort under a general of capacity. It required the 
stirring events, the victories, the failures, the arguments, the 
admonitions of 1863, to force the idea along and make it a 
conviction in places where it could be given effective and 
tangible shape. General Grant's growth as a successful com- 
mander, his organizing force, his genius, his skill, his persist- 
ency, his wonderful grasp of situations, his tactical powers, his 
repeated victories, his freedom from political affiliations and 
offensive jealousies, the confidence reposed in him by all the 
officers and men of the armies, and now by the government 
and country, greatly simplified the labor and lightened the 
responsibility of preparing for and choosing a suitable general- 
in-chief. 

And another thing that now impelled more strongly than 
ever to the adoption of the principle of unified command was 
the political and general military outlook. The Confederate 



• CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 213 

schemes to carry the war into the North, which had been the 
central feature of their operations in 1863, had failed, but 
they were to be supplemented by the disintegrating and 
demoralizing political doctrine of 1864, introduced into the 
National Democratic platform at Chicago, that the "war for the 
Union " had been a failure and should be abandoned. In the 
face of such a doctrine it would not do to push a contest for 
any great length of time without crowning it with frequent 
and substantial victories. And these victories were demanded 
from the very nature of the contest at the dawn of 1864, for 
it was plain that a crisis had been reached. The energies of 
the Confederacy had been taxed to the uttermost, yet it was a 
vigorous, determined unit. The energies of the Union had 
been largely, though not so exhaustively, drawn upon, and it 
was as much committed to its policy of peace, only through 
conquest, as the Confederacy itself. The issue was clearer 
than ever before. Defeat of either side meant its ruin more 
than ever before. And the scale must soon turn decidedly 
one way or the other. The war had not been uniformly pro- 
gressive in its Eastern theatre. In its Western, during 1863, it 
had been active and aggressive on the part of the Federals, 
and productive of most substantial fruits. Was this an indi- 
cation? It was so received by the country. And it was an 
inspiration as well. Il determined much, or helped to. It 
made the theory of firmer and more concentrated effort con- 
spicuous. It induced the spirit of rally for an effective and 
final blow. Such a blow would necessarily be more difficult 
than any to deliver, for Federal successes could only result in 
driving the Confederates closer together, compacting their 
forces, shortening their defensive lines, giving them the ad- 
vantage of striking from a centre upon more widely diffused 
but gradually concentrating lines. All the factors of former 
Federal victories must now be present in tenfold force. There 
must be no frittering away of time, no waste of precious 



214 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

energy, no discordant policies, no defensive tactics, no strategy, 
that was not bold and aggressive, no lack of concentration, no 
divided military councils, no fear of consequences. As the 
issues were clear and closely joined, so the arbiters — the 
armies — must be kept face to face, in' close contact, perpetual 
meeting, till a verdict was signed, sealed, delivered and pub- 
lished to the world. 

The bill to revive the grade of lieutenant-general in the 
armies of the United States, which had been introduced by 
Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, soon after the battle of Chatta- 
nooga, was making slow progress in the Congress, but was 
gradually ripening for final passage. The instincts of legisla- 
tors, spurred by the sentiment of the country, by study of the 
situation, and by all outward, determining circumstances, 
forced a result on February 26th, 1864, when both Houses 
sanctioned the bill. The President approved it on the first 
day of March, and immediately nominated General Grant to 
an office which had not existed since 1798, when the grade of 
lieutenant-general was tendered as an honorary offering to 
General Washington, who held it for one year, when it was 
discontinued. In 1855 it was conferred by brevet on Major 
General Winfield Scott. 

The authorities at Washington, outside of the Congress, 
neither favored nor opposed this bill while it was pending. 
They were convinced of its efficacy, and those who were con- 
nected with war affairs, including the President, felt that the 
man for the mission was already in the foreground, but it was 
a grave measure, and the responsibility should not be detached 
from the people, the real source of power. Hitherto the 
grade had been honorary. Now it would carry a power 
altogether new, and be productive of lasting good or irreme- 
diable evil, as it was wielded wisely or foolishly. 

Though sentiment had long previously pointed to Grant as 
the man to be trusted with this new honor and power, though 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 215 

his name had been used in the Congress and his successes 
and genius pointed to as arguments in favor of combining all 
future military effort under one capable head, he used no influ- 
ence, spoke no words, wrote no line to bring about the result. 
He was as quietly indifferent to the fate of the bill as if his 
name had never been mentioned in connection with it, yet 
amid that indifference there was no disposition to shrink from 
the responsibilities it imposed, should the country choose to call 
him to higher spheres of activity and more important services. 

During the debates on the bill, and after his name had been 
mentioned in connection with it, Mr. Washburne said : " No 
man Avith his consent has ever mentioned his name in connec- 
tion with any position. I say what I know to be true when I 
allege that every promotion he has received since he first 
entered the service to put down this rebellion was moved 
without his knowledge or consent. And in regard to this 
very matter of lieutenant-general, after the bill was introduced 
and his name mentioned in connection with it, he wrote me 
and admonished me that he had been highly honored by the 
government, and did not ask or deserve anything more in the 
shape of honors or promotion ; and that a success over the 
enemy was what he craved above everything else ; that he 
only desired to hold such influence over those under his 
command as to use them to the best advantage to secure that 
end." 

On March 3d, 1864, Halleck sent the following dispatch to 
Grant : 

"The Secretary of War directs that you will report in 
person to the War Department, as early as practicable, con- 
sidering the condition of your command. If necessary you 
will keep up telegraphic communication with your command 
while en route to Washington." 

The next day, March 4th, General Grant started for the 
capitol. His last orders to Sherman give a view of his plans 



2l6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

for the spring campaign. They directed that officer to guard 
all the Mississippi river posts, as far as practicable with colored 
troops, and concentrate his other forces at Memphis, so as to 
be ready for active operations after the winter had passed. 
This was with a view to a direct movement on Atlanta and 
Mobile, which Grant intended to lead in person, notwithstand- 
ing his promotion. Thomas was to fight his way southward 
to Atlanta. Then cutting loose from that point the army was 
to swing upon Mobile or Savannah, whichever should prove 
most inviting. For this purpose Sherman's, Thomas' and 
Schofield's armies were to co-operate, and he had no doubt of 
the ultimate success of his daring plans, for every indication 
favored his long entertained and oft repeated theory that while 
the Confederacy presented a strong circumference it was 
really weak at its centre. He therefore left for Washington 
with the intention of returning in ten or twelve days to Chat- 
tanooga to superintend his spring plans, and head the great 
offensive movement of his combined armies. 

The spirit with which he received notice of his promotion 
and his orders to report at Washington, cannot be more fairly 
set forth than by his private letter to Sherman, which was for- 
warded with the official orders of March 3d: 

" Dear Sherman : — The bill reviving the grade of Lieutenant- 
General in the army has become a law, and my name has been 
sent to the Senate for the place. I now receive orders to report 
to Washington immediately, in person, which indicates a con- 
firmation, or a likelihood of confirmation. I start in the morning 
to comply with the order. 

" Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war, in at 
least gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more 
than I, how much of this success is due to the energy and skill 
of those whom it has been my good fortune to have occupying 
subordinate positions under me. 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 217 

"There are many officers to whom these remarks are appli- 
cable to a greater or less degree, proportionate to their ability 
as soldiers ; but what I want is to express my thanks to you 
and McPherson, as the men to whom, above all others, I feel 
indebted for whatever I have had of success. 

" How far your advice and assistance have been of help to 
me, you know. How far your execution of whatever has been 
given you to do, entitles you to the reward I am receiving, you 
cannot know as well as I. 

"I feel all the gratitude this letter would express, giving it 
the most flattering construction. 

"The word you I use in the plural, intending it for McPher- 
son also. I should write to him, and will some day, but starting 
in the morning, I do not know that I will find time just now. 

"Your friend, 

"U. S. Grant." 

Sherman, who was at Memphis, received this letter on March 
10th, and replied: 

"Dear General: — I have your more than kind and char- 
acteristic letter of the 4th inst. I will send a copy to General 
McPherson at once. 

"You do yourself injustice, and us too much honor, in 
assigning to us too large a share of the merits which have led 
to your high advancement. I know you approve of the friend- 
ship I have ever professed to you, and will permit me to continue, 
as heretofore, to manifest it on all proper occasions. 

"You are now Washington's legitimate successor, and occupy 
a position of almost dangerous elevation; but if you can con- 
tinue as heretofore, to be yourself, simple, honest, and unpre- 
tending, you will enjoy through life the respect and love of 
friends and the homage of millions of human beings, that will 



2 15 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

award you a large share in securing to them and their descend- 
ants a government of law and stability. 

"I repeat, you do General McPherson and myself too much 
honor. At Belmont you manifested your traits — neither of us 
being near. At Donelson, also, you illustrated your whole 
character. I was not near, and General McPherson in too 
subordinate a capacity to influence you. 

"Until you had won Donelson, I confess I was almost cowed 
by the terrible array of anarchical elements that presented 
themselves at every point; but that admitted a ray of light I 
have followed ever since. I believe you are as brave, patriotic 
and just, as the great prototype Washington — as unselfish, 
kind-hearted and honest as a man should be — but the chief 
characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always 
manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith a 
Christian has in the Saviour. 

" This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, 
when you have completed your best preparations you go into 
battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga — no doubts, no 
reserves; and, I can tell you, it was this that made us act 
with confidence. I knew, wherever I was, that you thought 
of me, and if I got in a tight place you would help me out, if 
alive. 

" My only point of doubt was, in your knowledge of grand 
strategy, and of books of science and history; but, I confess, 
your common sense seems to have supplied all these. 

" Now as to the future. Don't stay in Washington. Come 
West; take to yourself the whole Mississippi Valley. Let us 
make it dead sure — and, I tell you, the Atlantic slopes and 
Pacific shores will follow its destiny, as sure as the limbs of a 
tree live or die with the main trunk. We have done much, but 
still much remains. Time and time's influences are with us. 
We could almost afford to sit still and let these influences 
work. 



CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON. 219 

" Here lies the seat of the coming empire ; and from the West, 
when our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston 
and Richmond, and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic. 

" Your sincere friend, 

"W. T. Sherman." 

General Grant's journey to Washington was made as rapidly 
as possible, and by special trains. Wherever his approach to 
a town was known he was welcomed by cheering multitudes, 
eager to see and honor the new commander of the nation's 
armies. While on the way he received the following from 
Halleck, whom he succeeded : " The Secretary of War directs 
me to say, that your commission as Lieutenant-General is 
signed, and will be delivered to you on your arrival at the War 
Department. I sincerely congratulate you on this recognition 
of your distinguished and meritorious services." 

On March 8th, he arrived at the capitol, a stranger to the 
President, almost one to the Secretary of War, and quite one 
to the scenes and surroundings. On the 9th, he was formally 
present with the President and his Cabinet, when Mr. Lincoln 
said: 

" General Grant, the nation's appreciation of what you have 
done and its reliance upon you for what remains to be done, 
in the existing great struggle, are now presented, with this 
commission constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army 
of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon 
you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein 
trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need 
to add, that with what I here speak for the nation, goes my 
own hearty personal concurrence." 

The General replied: "Mr. President, I accept the com- 
mission, with gratitude for the high honor conferred. With 
the aid of the noble armies that have fought in so many fields 



220 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to 
disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the 
responsibilities now devolving on me; and I know that if they 
are met it will be due to those armies, and above all to the 
favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men." 
The investiture was then made complete by the action of 
the President, who assigned the new Lieutenant-General to the 
command of all the national armies, with headquarters in the 
field. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 

WHEN Lieutenant-General Grant took command of the 
armies of the United States and glanced at the situation 
from his high central stand-point, he saw the enemy in strong- 
est numbers, under its ablest generals, and on its best fighting- 
ground, in the State of Virginia, and between the two capitals, 
Washington and Richmond. Nature had made this area 
strong for defence. It was thickly wooded, and across it ran 
the Rappahannock and Rapidan, the Mattapony, the Pamunkey, 
the North and South Anna, and the Chickahominy, all more 
or less sluggish, deep steams, with wide margins of flats and 
swamps. Almost from the beginning of the war it had been 
the scene of defeat and victory for the respective armies, as 
the Bull Runs, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cedar Moun- 
tain, and the stupendous Peninsular Campaign, proved. Lee's 
army now stretched across it south of the Rapidan, covering 
Richmond, menacing the national capital. 

Should the Federal armies concentrate in the West, drive 
Johnston from Dalton, establish a new line from Atlanta to 
Mobile, do all that had been hoped under Sherman and 
Thomas, it would only result in harder Confederate consolida- 
tion in the path between Washington and Richmond. Lee's 
army therefore became an important and direct objective. As 
long as it represented an unbroken military power the war 
could not terminate. There could be no break except by of- 
fensive action and immediate contact. Continuous and con- 
current operations were the means Grant decided upon to 

222 




MAP OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 



224 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



force victory and bring peace. No opportunity should be 
given the Confederates to profit by their interior lines, to send 
reinforcements hither and thither at will, to hold strong defen- 
sive positions with inferior numbers. In deciding upon this 
he was only applying his Western strategy to an Eastern situ- 
ation. But he was in a great measure reversing the tactics 
of his predecessors — the brilliant manoeuvres for place, the 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 

splendid games of battle at which Lee had played so success- 
fully with McClellan and Hooker and Burnside. 

There was also a moral argument which must have weighed 
powerfully with him, since it helped to change all his previous 
plans and forced him to ignore the solemn advice of Sherman, 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 225 

Thomas, and indeed all his Western generals. His assump- 
tion of command had a chivalric significance. Lee stood head 
and shoulders above the Confederate generals. He had 
proved more than a match for the best Federal leadership. 
Therefore acceptance of the high rank of lieutenant-general 
was in the nature of a gauge of battle. He could no more 
decline a trial with the Confederate chieftain, without injuring 
his fame and weakening his power to command, than the 
country could afford to further waste its resources and its 
blood by continuing the policy of former officers of the Poto- 
mac armies. The intuitions of a heroic nature pointed un- 
erringly to a duty inherent in his high office, that of crushing 
the foremost army of the Confederacy under its foremost 
leader. 

He was encouraged in these convictions by the willingness 
of the authorities at Washington to stand by him, to load him 
with their confidence, to permit him to mature his plans and 
carry them out without interference. Of this he had the vol- 
untary and kind assurance of both President and Secretary of 
War. 

On the tenth of March he started to the front. Meade had 
command of the Army of the Potomac. His headquarters 
were at Brandy Station, fifty miles from the capital and ten 
miles north of the Rapidan. The two generals had not met 
since the Mexican War, but Grant was received with most re- 
spectful consideration and conducted to headquarters. Meade's 
position was one of great delicacy. He had been successful at 
Gettysburg, had handled his army on Virginia soil with rare 
tact, and had met with no severe reverses. Under the cir- 
cumstances, removal, rumor of which had reached his ears, or 
even the raising of one to a rank above him, was a matter 
about which he had a right to be sensitive. But on their first 
interview he relieved Grant of all embarrassment by asking to 
be removed if it suited his plans best. Grant not only did not 
i5 



226 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

request his removal, but assured him of his desire not to inter- 
fere with his position as general of the Army of the Potomac. 

All night they discussed the military situation and plans 
for the future. On the nth of March he returned to Wash- 
ington, declined the honors of a public dinner given by the 
President, and started the same night for Nashville to perfect 
his Western campaigns and install the generals who were to 
carry them out. 

He arrived in Nashville on the 14th. On the 17th Sherman 
met him there, pursuant to orders. His first words to Grant 
were, " I cannot congratulate you on your promotion ; the re- 
sponsibility is too great." To this the quiet man responded 
with — silence. Yet he felt the full force of Sherman's utter- 
ance. Too many of his predecessors had failed in what he 
must now attempt for him to feel exultation over honors and 
rewards, however freely bestowed by a grateful country. 

Sherman again laid before Grant, in glowing colors and with 
all his natural L 'persuasiveness, the propriety and duty of re- 
maining in the West. " Here," said he, " you are at home ; 
you are acquainted with your ground ; you have tested your 
subordinates ; you know us, and we know you. Here you 
are sure of success ; here, too, you will be untrammeled. At 
the East you must begin new campaigns on an unfamiliar 
field, with troops and officers whom you have not tried, whom 
you have never led to victory. They cannot feel toward you 
as we do. Near Washington, besides, you will be beset, and 
it may be fettered, by scheming politicians. Stay here, where 
you have made your fame, and use the same means to consol- 
idate it." 

But Grant had already been moved by higher convictions 
of duty. That very mutual faith which Sherman spoke of 
would make his command of Western operations easy, while 
nothing but personal observation and superintendence would 
insure the success he desired in Virginia, on a strange field, 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS 227 

and among officers and men unused to his guidance. So he 
proceeded to parcel the Western domain and place his lieu^ 
tenants. 

Sherman was given command of the Military division of the 
Mississippi, the high post which Grant had just vacated. This 
would give him an opportunity to achieve a separate renown, 
which Grant felt was his due. Of his ability to do so he had 
not the least doubt. The two travelled together as far as Cin- 
cinnati. The plans for a spring movement on Johnston and 
into the heart of Georgia, thence on toward the sea, were all 
talked over and understood, but Sherman was left without de- 
tailed instructions. 

McPherson was assigned to the command of the Department 
of the Tennessee. Although this disposition placed Sherman 
over Thomas, and McPherson over Hurlbut, both these seniors 
acquiesced, and gave as heartily of skill and bravery as if they 
too had been honored with distinguished preference. This 
disposition of commands being made in the West, and the 
particular work of each assigned, although, as has been stated, 
Sherman was left with large discretionary power, General 
Grant hurried eastward to assume the burdens of active lead' 
ership in the field ; just " like yourself," as Sherman said, "you 
take the biggest load." 

On March 23d he was back again in Washington, and face 
to face with the responsibilities and difficulties of his high 
office. There was no shrinking from them, no questioning of 
plans, no thought of expedients. He was firm in the faith 
that gave him Donelson, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. No 
shadow of doubt about eventual success crossed his mind. 
The true heroism of the man, never ostentatious, never even 
visible except in his deeds, was now sustaining him for the 
fires of conflict, even as the heroic faith of the old Christians 
upheld them in the presence of the stake. 

And now came his work of reorganization and readjustment 



228 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

on the Atlantic seaboard. Halleck was made Grant's chief-of- 
staff in Washington. The Army of the Potomac was divided 
into three corps, to be known as the Second, under Major- 
General Hancock ; the Fifth, under Warren ; the Sixth, under 
Sedgwick. The Ninth Corps, brought from East Tennessee, 
was reorganized at Annapolis, and acted with the Army of the 
Potomac, but for a time independent of Meade, on account of 
Burnside's older commission. Among the division command- 
ers were such distinguished names as Barlow, Gibbon, Birney, 
Carr, Wadsworth, Crawford, Robinson, Griffin, Wright and 
Prince. The cavalry of the army was consolidated under Gen- 
eral Sheridan, with Gregg, Torbert, and Wilson as division 
commanders. 

The staff organization of the Potomac arrry remained 
unchanged, with Brigadier-General H. J. Hunt as Chief of 
Artillery; Major J. C. Duane, Chief of Engineers; Brigadier- 
General Rufus Ingalls, Chief Quartermaster; Major-General 
A. A. Humphreys was Chief of Staff, and also a division com- 
mander; Brigadier-General Seth Williams was Adjutant- 
General. 

Grant's personal staff consisted of General Rawlins, as Chief 
of Staff; Colonel T. S. Bowers, Adjutant-General; Colonel 
Comstock, Inspector-General; Colonel Horace Porter and 
Colonel O. E. Babcock, Aids-de-Camp; Colonel Adam Badeau 
and Colonel Ely Parker, Military Secretaries. This personal 
staff was made up of young officers, yet men full of experience, 
and in whom Grant had the utmost faith. 

In three days after his return from the West, General Grant 
was at the front looking closer into his preparations, and at the 
same time busy in remodeling all the military departments so 
as to turn their forces to the best account. Very many of these 
departments were outside the actual theatre of war, and con- 
tained idle armies, or forces, of no mean proportions. Some 
of them had been made the scene of useless operations, in no- 




GEN. GRANT AT THE FRONT. 



229 



23O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

wise in keeping with his plans of concentration and his future 
methods of attack. All these he reorganized and, wherever 
practicable, turned their forces to the account of the central 
armies. After all his plans of reorganization, mobilization and 
concentration were complete, he had in hand an aggregate of 
forces unequaled in modern warfare, and as to extent of country 
in which they were to be operated unparalleled in military 
history. 

They stood thus : 

Commander. Men. 

Department of f New England, ") Maj. Gen. « 

** the East. \ New York. / Dix. I,5 °° 

2. .department of f Ivania< 1 Maj. Gen. 

the Susquehanna. \ J J Couch. 

{Maryland, part, "] 
Delaware, I Maj. Gen. 

Virginia, East of [ Lewis Wallace. ^' 
the Chesapeake. J 

r Ohio, 1 

Northern J Indiana, Maj. Gen. ^ « 

4" Department. 1 Illinois, j Heintzelman. 

I Michigan. J 

f Wisconsin, 1 

Department of J Iowa, Maj. Gen. « 

^' the North West. 1 Minnesota, Pope. 

[ Indian Territory. J 

6 department of f | Maj. Gen. 6oQ 

Kansas. 1 J Curtis. ™ 

Department of / ) Maj. Gen. IO 000 

'." Missouri. \ / Rosecrans. 

g Department of f \ Brig. Gen. 

New Mexico. \ J Carleton. J '' 

Department of / California, \ Brig. Gen. e >. 

9- Pacific. 1 Oregon. / Wright. 5 '°° 

All these were outside the theatre of actual war. 

">• °5Sr rf { 1 Steele. '**> 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 



231 



II. 



Department of 
Gulf. 

Department of 
Tennessee. 

Department of 
Cumberland. 

Department of 
Ohio. 

Department of 
W. Virginia. 



Louisiana, 
Texas. 



/ Tennessee, part, 



Kentucky, part. 

Tennessee, part, 
Kentucky, part. 



East Tennessee. 



{• 



•■} 



Department of f The Capital and im- 
Washington. \ mediate defences. 



Department of 

Virginia and 

North Carolina. 



Department of 
the South. 



Sea Coast South 
of N. Carolina. 



Maj. Gen. 
Banks. 

Maj. Gen. 
McPherson. 

Maj. Gen. 
Thomas. 

Maj. Gen. 
Schofield. 

Maj. Gen. 
Sigel. 

Maj. Gen. 
Auger. 

Maj. Gen. 
Butler. 



Maj. Gen. 
Gillmore. 



These were all within the theatre of actual war. Besides the 
forces thus shown, the Army of the Potomac had .... 



56,000 
56,000 
102,000 
26,500 
26,000 
28,000 

47,000 

9,700 

97,000 



Ninth Corps, Burnside's, 22,000 



Grand total, 529,800 



These were actives, and they represented an army, on paper, 
exceeding six hundred thousand men. 

General Grant's strategy consisted in merging all his avail- 
able armies into two, or at most three, powerfully co-operating 
bodies. These were to be brought into direct contact with the 
foe wherever he was found strongest, and to be used incessantly 
till he was beaten or exhausted. There was to be but one 
common centre and aim — Lee's army in the East, Johnston's 
army in the West. In the East two necessities existed. Wash- 
ington must be guarded. Butler's command must be protected, 
for it held the outlets to the sea. Therefore, in moving on Lee, 
Washington must never be uncovered, and yet the campaign 
must move so that the Army of the Potomac and the Army 



232 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

of the James should be as one, either in their co-operation, or 
by actual junction — which last afterward came about. 

Sherman was to mass his three armies upon Johnston, at 
Dalton; Meade was to move from his base north of the Rapidan 
upon Lee; Butler, reinforced by the Tenth Corps, under Gill- 
more, was to operate against Richmond from the south side of 
the James river. But, while Richmond was a point toward 
which all effort centred, Lee's army was the always conspicuous 
objective. Hence, Meade was informed that when fighting 
begun it was to be carried on wherever Lee should go with his 
army. Sherman was similarly informed, that Atlanta was to 
be his point of convergence and conquest, but that Johnston 
must be followed wherever he went, and fought wherever he 
stood. The thing of primary moment was the breaking up 
and destruction of the organized and armed forces of the Con- 
federacy. The time for it had arrived, the men were in the field 
for it, Grant's high commission endowed him with power to 
turn every energy to this account, all the conditions existed 
for carrying to success the comprehensive plans of a gigantic 
and final campaign. Sherman, Meade and Butler were to move 
on the same day. Neither army was to draw reinforcements 
rom the other, but Sherman was to keep Johnston always 
engaged, so as to prevent him from swinging to Lee, and 
Meade was to do similarly with Lee's army. Banks was to 
release as many men as possible from his command to co- 
operate with Farragut in an attack on Mobile. Sigel was 
directed to move a part of his force eastward into the valley 
of Virginia, and to push the rest down so as to cut the East 
Tennessee railroad. Thus all the troops in the theatre of actual 
war, not required for guard and garrison duty, were to be turned 
to account, and the general direction of all was to be toward 
a common centre of operations. That there might be no 
diversion from the essential issue, there was a general suspen- 
sion of outside enterprises. Every army not within the areas 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 233 

of activity was to rest and hold on. The situation became 
highly dramatic. The face of the soldiery, the authorities, 
the country, the world, was turned toward Virginia and Georgia, 
Richmond and Atlanta. 

These were the general plans. The specific movements 
must now be determined. Sherman was left to determine his 
own. On April 1st Grant visited Butler at Fortress Monroe. 
He had previously determined that he should move along the 
south side of the James and upon Petersburg. The threat on 
Richmond would be as direct as if a move were made on the 
north side of the river, and it would eventuate in cutting the 
railroads running into the Confederate capital from the south. 
Butler preferred this route also. Therefore Petersburg and 
the railways became his objective, for " with them in our pos- 
session," said Grant, " Richmond must fall." 

Then as to the movement of the Army of the Potomac. 
Should it move by way of the enemy's left or right ? By 
crossing the Rapidan above the enemy — that is, by a movement 
on his left — Lee would be cut off from all chance of ignoring 
Richmond and making a diversion to the North. But then 
there would be no base of supplies, and no possibility of co- 
operating with Butler on the James. To move by the enemy's 
right — that is, to cross the Rapidan below him — would secure a 
base of supplies at Brandy Station, as well as on the Rappa- 
hannock, York, and James rivers, should the army fight its 
way thus far. 

By April 29th his mind was fully made up to move by his 
own left and on to the enemy's right, to start with fifteen days' 
rations, to bring Meade's and Butler's forces together on the 
James. This determination he at the proper time communi- 
cated to his subordinates and to the authorities at Washing- 
ton. It has been much commented on by military martinets, 
as has his entire " on to Richmond " move. The best answer 
to all comments is that it succeeded, while every previous plan 



234 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

failed. That it was full of natural and artificial difficulties 
from the start, many of which might have been avoided by 
taking a water route as in the Peninsular Campaign of McClel- 
lan, none doubts. But the fate of McClellan, Pope, Hooker, 
Burnside, and in part that of Meade, ought to enter into every 
consideration of a choice of ways and employment of means. 
The fact was that the Wilderness proved the only real obsta- 
cle. The deep, marsh-bordered rivers, which were regarded 
as so capable of defence, which were defences in themselves, 
turned out to be the least formidable things in the way. The 
Rapidan, North Anna, Panumky, Chickahominy, and even the 
James, were crossed by the Federal armies without loss. Lee 
made no defence of them. And, really, Grant anticipated this, 
for he saw that in order to defend them Lee would have to so 
scatter his forces as to place himself at the mercy of the grand 
central column which Grant had determined to keep ever 
active and aggressive. Besides, every other route uncovered 
Washington, and no other was free from objections which 
grew more formidable the longer they were considered. 
Grant's route gave him freedom to manoeuvre and fight, test 
his strategy and exhaust his enemy. If victory came it would 
mean something ; if defeat, he would still have weakened his 
foe, and any line of retreat would necessarily be a short one. 
To be always in sight of Lee on that dangerous ground, and 
in that delicate situation, so near the national capital, within 
such easy striking distance of the North, was a determination 
full of military wisdom. And then to engage him often, to 
fence with him, to demoralize by bold strategy, to keep him 
on the alert and on the defensive, to take and hold fresh bases, 
to drive ever toward his capital and centre — these were far- 
more effective in the end than any indirect and inconsequen- 
tial schemes of invasion, however brilliant .they might have 
been in conception, or however they may have subscribed to 
the book-theories of learned professors. 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 



235 



Grant's preparations during April were somewhat interfered 
with by a small faction, in and out of the army, that regarded 
him as inferior in ability to some of his predecessors in com- 
mand of the Eastern departments. He was looked upon by 
such as more fortunate than able, and as victorious only be- 
cause he had not yet contended with the best generals on the 
Confederate side. There must be no combat with this senti- 
ment, however much it happened to be in a minority. But to 
work around it, to get it pacified and where it could do no 
harm, was difficult. He exercised his power of supreme com- 
mand so as to keep clear of bitter complications on this ac- 
count, and insure as united and hearty a support as possible. 

And then it was not all plain sailing in the field. The Con- 
federates, taking advantage of the climate, were on the move 
earlier than his own forces. Forrest, with a large cavalry 
force, had penetrated West Tennessee and Kentucky and cap- 
tured Union City, and the town but not the fortifications of 
Paducah. He then threw himself on Fort Pillow and massa- 
cred its garrison of seven hundred men, 
mostly colored troops. Sherman sent 
a force against him and drove him south 
of Tennessee. Grant had decided on 
the evacuation of Plymouth and Wash- 
ington in North Carolina, as places of 
no military importance. They were 
given up on the 22d of April, or rather 
their garrisons had been so reduced as 
to make them an easy prey to Con- 
federate attack. This encouraged the 

Confederates greatly ; besides, their loss looked like disaster 
to those ignorant of Grant's plans, or who were anxious for 
something on which to rest criticism and censure. 

But by far the most embarrassing situation arose in Louis- 
iana. Halleck had, even a year before, fully committed Banks 




GENERAL FORREST. 



236 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to the remote Red River Expedition. In Grant's mind it was 
only scattering troops and indulging a craze. He had felt this 
particularly when called upon at a critical moment to send a 
corps to Banks' relief, and afterward when the remoteness of 
these troops beyond the Mississippi, and the greater import- 
ance attached by Halleck to the Red River scheme, frustrated 
his proposed movement on Mobile. 

By the time Grant assumed command of all the armies, 
March, 1864, Banks was so far on with his movement on 
Shreveport that a recall would have been foolish or fatal. 
Therefore Steele was ordered to help him with his Arkansas 
forces, and A. J. Smith, who had been detached from Sherman, 
was ordered to stay till the fate of Banks' expedition was 
known. At the same time Banks was ordered to push his en- 
terprise with all his might, so as to send Smith back to Sher- 
man as soon as possible, and free his own forces; for, said 
Grant, "I look upon the conquering of the organized armies 
of the enemy as being of vastly more importance than the 
mere acquisition of territory. It may be a part of the spring 
campaign to move against Mobile. It certainly will be if 
troops enough can be obtained without embarrassing other 
movements." 

On March 28th Grant learned that Banks, who was to meet 
Sherman's force at Alexandria on the 17th, had not left New 
Orleans on the 19th. He immediately proposed a new de- 
partment, so as to secure a general who would obey his orders 
better. His proposition did not meet with favor at Washington. 
Then on the 3 1st of March Grant's orders to Banks were to push 
with all energy, so that a force of twenty-five thousand men at 
least could be thrown against Mobile by the 1 st of May. Word 
came back which filled Grant with apprehension. It was to 
the effect that after the capture of Shreveport he (Banks) in- 
tended to turn his attention to Texas. Not trusting further to 
hazardous messengers, Grant sent to Washington for General 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 2^ 

Hunter, and dispatched him to Banks with full and peremp- 
tory instructions. They were to the effect that if after the cap- 
ture of Shreveport he had turned toward Texas, he should 
retrace his steps at once and concentrate for the proposed 
move on Mobile. Hunter was to stay to see that the Mobile 
expedition was put under way. 

Three days after Hunter started, word came that Banks had 
been defeated near Pleasant Hill, and forced to retreat to Grand 
Ecore with the loss of his supplies. Thus the Red River ex- 
pedition terminated in disaster. Grant felt greatly chagrined, 
for now Sherman could hope for no help from Banks. The large 
force of the latter, thirty thousand strong, would be neutralized 
for the balance of the season. All Grant's suggestions as to a 
change of officers west of the Mississippi were ignored, and he 
was forced to leave the situation there wrapped in cloud, in 
order to hasten final preparations for his immediate spring 
campaigns. 

Word was coming in that his plans were being met with 
great promptitude. Gillmore reported that his troops had been 
withdrawn from the Carolinas. Butler was massed at Gloucester 
Point, on the York river, as if a movement on Richmond, north 
of the James, were intended. On May ist, Sigel reported the 
occupation of Winchester. Crook and Averill were well on 
toward the Kanawha. Sherman reported his army as ready 
to move from Chattanooga. Burnside was ordered into position 
between Bull Run and the Rappahannock, close to Meade's 
rear. A fleet of iron clads was sent to the James to co-operate 
with Butler. 

A little flurry occurred when Sigel reported that Lee was 
moving into the Shenandoah Valley, evidently bent on another 
invasion of the North. "Let him go," said Grant; "I will 
follow with force enough to prevent his return South." It 
turned out that the forces Sigel had seen were those of Long- 
street, on their way from East Tennessee to join Lee. 



238 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

At last the mighty machine was ready in all parts to move. 
Rain, and a backward, cold spring had postponed the final 
order for some days, but at length there went forth from the 
silent man at Culpeper word which was to put to final test 
the armies and causes of the respective governments. Never 
such a big fate hung on one man's word. 

To Butler, " Start your forces on the night of the 4th, so as 
to be as far up the James as you can on the morning of the 
5th of May." To Halleck, "When we move from here cannot 
the bridges between Bull Run and the Rappahannock be held 
by troops from Washington ? " To Halleck, again, "Say to 
Burnside not to leave his position between Bull Run and the 
Rappahannock before May 5th." To Sherman, " Get your 
forces up, so as to move by May 5th. All will strike together." 
To Meade, " You will move according to the orders issued." 
To Burnside, on the 3d of May, " All General Meade's troops 
will be away from Brandy Station to-morrow morning." Finally 
to Halleck, at 12.30 p. m. of May 3d, "This army moves to- 
morrow morning." 

That night, at Culpeper, Grant detailed all his plans to his 
staff. It was a lengthy, earnest, momentous consultation. The 
plans were so comprehensive, the results which hung on them 
so stupendous, the chances so various, the obstacles so 
formidable, that no one man was buoyant, though all were 
trustful and determined. Grant's spirit was the least moved 
among them, and his vision was the clearest. 

Two days before, he had received the following from the 
President : 

" Executive Mansion, 

" Washington, April 30th, 1864. 
" Lieutenant-General Grant : Not expecting to see you again before the 
spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way, my entire satisfaction with 
what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of 
your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; 
arid, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon 



PREPARING FOR THE WILDERNESS. 239 

you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or the capture of our men 
in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape 
your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything wanting, which is 
within my power to give, do not fail to let me know. 

" And now, with a brave army and just cause, may God sustain you. 

" Yours very truly, 

"A. Lincoln." 

Grant's reply was: 

"Headquarters Armies of the United States, 

" Culpeper Court House, Va., May 1st, 1864. 
" The President : Your very kind letter of yesterday is just received. The 
confidence you express for the future, and satisfaction for the past, in my military 
administration, is acknowledged with pride. It shall be my earnest endeavor that 
you and the country shall not be disappointed. From my entrance into the volun- 
teer service of the country to the present day, I have never had cause of complaint 
— have never expressed nor implied a complaint against the administration or the 
Secretary of War, for throwing any embarrassment in the way of my vigorously 
prosecuting what appeared to be my duty. And since the promotion which placed 
me in command of all the armies, and in view of the great responsibility, and the 
importance of success, I have been astonished at the readiness with which every- 
thing asked for has been yielded, without even an explanation being asked. Should 
my success be less than I desire and expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not 
with you. 

" Very truly, your obedient servant, 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant- General." 

Thus the political and military chieftains of the nation entered 
harmoniously and supportingly upon this momentous campaign, 
each conscious of their desire to do right, whatever might be- 
tide ; each relying on the bravery and discipline of their soldiers ; 
each trusting- in that overruling- Providence which establishes 
the just cause even at the expense of anxious delay and much 
sacrifice. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE WILDERNESS. 

IN the previous chapter we saw why Grant determined to 
cross the Rapidan below Lee's army, and move by his right 
flank. Bearing this in mind, let us see how, with what force, 
and against what opposition he did it. 

In counting men and comparing forces, the reader must re- 
member that Confederate official figures show only the men of 
a command present and fit for duty on any given date. The 
Federal official figures show all the men enrolled on any given 
date. The latter figures are therefore always in excess of the 
men actually present and fit for duty. The per cent, of this 
excess can be safely set down at about eighteen. Thus Grant 
found an enrolled army of 662,345 men on May 1st, 1864, but 
an equipped and dutiable army of 533,447, a difference of over 
eighteen per cent. This was the entire Federal forces in all 
the Departments. 

Lee's army, called the Army of Northern Virginia, occupied 
during the winter and spring of 1864 a fine defensive position 
on the south bank of the Rapidan. Its right rested on Mine 
Run, its left on the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Ewell, with one 
of the three corps into which the army was divided, held the 
right, protected by Mine Run and by an "almost impenetrable 
tangle of pine woods, called the " Wilderness," which extended 
for many miles south. Hill held the left with another corps, 
well protected by the Blue Ridge and the Rapidan. J. E. B. 
Stuart had command of the Confederate cavalry. The third 
infantry corps, commanded by Longstreet, lay in the rear, 
240 



THE WILDERNESS. 24 1 

among the hills at . Gordonsville. Besides the Rapidan, with 
difficult fords and steep banks, the entire front of this army was 
artificially well protected by lines of breastworks, which made 
a successful front attack impossible. Its strength was 75,391 
men, as nearly as may be, with probably 224 field pieces. 

The strength of the Federal army, including the Army of 
the Potomac, 97,273, and the Ninth Corps, 19,613, was, on the 
morning of May 4th, 1864, 1 16,886 men, with 322 field pieces. 

ORGANIZATION OF ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 
Commander, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. 

{1st Brigade, Col. J. Howard Kitching. 
2d " Maj. John A. Tompkins. 

1st « Horse Art Capt. John M.Robertson. 
2d " " Capt. Dunbar R. Ransom. 

3d " Light, Maj. Robert H. Fitzhugh. 

SECOND ARMY CORPS. 
Maj. Gen. W. S. Hancock. 

{1st Brigade, ? Reg'ts, Col. Nelson A. Miles. 
2d " s " Col. T. A. Smyth. 

3d " 6 " Col. Paul Frank. 

4th " 6 " Col. John R. Brooke. 



Second Division , 



[St Brigade, 8 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. Alex. S. Webb. 



Brig. Gen. John Gibbon. 1 2 * 5 Bng. Gen. Joshua T Owen. 

& J ( 3d ' 9 " Col. Samuel S. Carron. 

Third Division, f 1st Brigade, 9 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. J. H. H. Ward. 

Maj. Gen. David B. Birney. (2d " 9 " Brig. Gen. Alex. Hays. 

Fourth Division, ( 1st Brigade, 9 Reg'ts, Col. Robert McAllister. 

Brig. Gen. Gershom Mott (2d " 8 " Col Wm. R. Brewster. 

Corps Artillery Brigade, 11 Batteries, Col. John C. Tidball. 

FIFTH ARMY CORPS. 
Maj. Gen. G. K. Warren. 



First Division, 



( 1st Brigade, 9 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. R. B. Ayres. 
-I 2d "5 " Col. J^B. Sweitzen 

I 3<" 



Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin. \sd " 7 " Brig/Gen. Jos.'^Bartlett. 



c , _. . . f 1st Brigade, 4 Reg'ts, Col. Samuel H. Leonard. 

Second Division, J ^ ',,„.„ r ^ n Wpn „ Bayf „ 

{" 

( 1st Briga< 
< 2d " 

I 3d " 



-< 2d " 6 " Brie. Gen. Henry Baxter. 

Brig. Gen. John C. Robinson. | ^ „ ^ tt C ol A - W. Dennison. 

Third Division, ( 1st Brigade, 6 Reg'ts, Col. Wm. McCandless. 

Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford. (2d " 5 " Col. Jos. W. Fisher. 



Fourth Division, 
Brig. Gen. Jas. S. Wadsworth. 



t Brigade, 7 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler. 
5 " Brig. Gen. Jas. C. Rice. 
5 " Col. Roy Stone. 
Corps Artillery Brigade, n Batteries, Col. Chas. S. Wainwright. 

6 



242 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

SIXTH ARMY CORPS. 
Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick. 

f ist Brigade, 6 Reg'ts, Col. H. W. Brown. 
First Division, J 2d " 4 " Col. Emory Upton. 

Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright. 1 3d "4 " Brig. Gen. David A. Russell. 
I. 4th " 5 " Brig. Gen. Alex. Shaler. 

{ist Brigade, 5 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. Frank Wheaton. 
2d " 5 " Col. Lewis A. Grant. 

3d " 5 " Brig. Gen. Th. H. Neill. 

4th " 4 " Brig. Gen. Henry L. Eustis. 



Third Division. 



5 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. Wm. H. Morn's. 



f ist Brigade, 

-< 2d "6 " *CoI. Benj. F^ Smith. 

(^Relieved, M 



Brig. Gen. jas. B. Ricketts. |*£ elieved) M " ay 5th> b y Brig Gen. Truman Seymour 

Corps Artillery Brigade, 9 Batteries, Col. Charles H. Tompkins. 

CAVALRY CORPS. 
Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. 

First Division, f « l Bri ?? de > \ Re .?' ts ' f. r j.Gen. Geo A. Custer. 



Brig. Gen. A. T. A. Torbert. 



2d " 4 " Col. Thos. C. Devi 

3d " 5 " Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt. 



Second Division, f ist Brigade, 4 Reg'ts, Brig. Gen. Hen. E. Davies, Ji 

Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg. (2d " 7 " Col. J. Irwin Gregg. 

Third Division, f ist Brigade, 4 Reg'ts, Col. Tim. M. Bryan, Jr. 

Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson. ( 2d " 4 " Col. Geo. H. Chapman. 



NINTH ARMY CORPS. 

Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. 

(Not under Meade, but operating with Army of the Potomac.) 

First Division, f ist Brigade, 6 Reg'ts, Col. Sumner Carruth. 

Brig. Gen. Thos. G. Stevenson. (2d " 3 " Col. Daniel Leasure. 

Two Batteries of Artillery. 

Second Division, f ist Brigade, 6 Reg'ts, Col. Zenas R. Bliss 

Brig. Gen. Robert B. Potter. (2d " 6 " Col. Simon G. Griffin 

Two Batteries of Artillery. 

Third Division, f ist Brigade, 6 Reg'ts, Col. John F. Hartrantl, 

Brig. Gen. Orlando B. Wilcox. (2d " 5 " Col. Benj. C. Christ. 

Two Batteries of Artillery. 

Fourth Division, f ist Brigade, 4 Reg'ts, Col. Joshua K. Sigfried. 

Brig. Gen. Edward Ferrero. (2d " 3 " Col. Hen. G. Thomas. 

Two Batteries of Artillery. 

Corps Artillery (Reserve), 6 Batteries. 

Cavalry, 3 Regiments 

Provisional Brigade, 3 Regiments, Col. Elisha G. Marshall. 



THE WILDERNESS. 243 

The preponderance of men and artillery was, therefore, on 
the Federal side. The advantage of defensive lines, made almost 
impervious by art and nature; of short inner movements nearer 
the centre of a military circle- of familiarity with topography 
and strategical positions, was with the Confederates ; quite 
enough so, be it supposed, to equalize the numerical strength 
of the two armies. 

Grant's decision to move by Lee's right plunged him 
directly into the " Wilderness." It was not an attempt to pass 
the enemy's right flank and to avoid it It was a threat upon 
it with the intention of forcing Lee to change his front, and 
of engaging him in battle away from the fortifications on the 
immediate south side of the Rapidan. Grant knew that Lee 
could not possibly remain within his works when the Federals 
were marching by his right, without abandoning his lines of 
communications and supplies. Either battle would become 
compulsory, or Lee's retreat inevitable. For the former, Grant 
was fully prepared, and that he invited, even amid the obstacles 
of the Wilderness. 

It should be understood that Grant's superintendence of 
operations was general. All orders for the Army of the 
Potomac were passed to and through Meade, and he was left as 
free as possible to provide for details. Thus the precise order 
in which the army should cross the Rapidan was arranged by 
Meade. The points selected were Germanna and Ely Fords, 
and the march w r as to be into the Wilderness by the roads 
nearest to the Confederate lines. The troops were to carry 
fifty rounds of ammunition each, three days' rations, and to 
take along three days' beef on the hoof. The supply trains 
were loaded with ten days' forage and subsistence. 

About one o'clock on the morning of May 4th, Wilson's 
cavalry Division (3d) was ordered to move from Stevensburg, 
cross the Rapidan at Germanna Ford, cover the construction of 
pontoons at that point, and clear the way for Warren's coming. 



244 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

As soon as Warren's corps (5th) was across, Wilson was to push 
to the old Wilderness Tavern and thence to Parker's Store, 
scouting the country in all directions, and gathering all the 
information possible of the enemy's movements. Warren 
followed closely with his corp, and by noon his advance 
had reached Wilderness Tavern at the crossing of the Orange 
Turnpike and Germanna Ford roads, where he bivouacked for 
the night. 

Warren's corps was followed closely by Sedgwick's (6th), 
which crossed the pontoons during the afternoon of the 4th, 
and encamped before dark a mile beyond the river. 

Gregg's division of cavalry (2d) was ordered to move to 
Ely's Ford, further down, cross, and do the same for Hancock's 
corps that Wilson had done for Warren and Sedgwick. Han- 
cock followed him closely, found the pontoons laid, and 
crossed without opposition, encamping on Hooker's old battle 
ground, near Chancellorsville. Torbert's division of cavalry 
(ist) was to cover the trains in the rear of the army, which 
were all well across by nightfall. Then he was to report to 
Sheridan at Chancellorsville. 

At 8 A. m. of the 4th, Grant left his head-quarters at Cul- 
peper, and rode toward Germanna Ford, which he crossed after 
the Fifth Corps had passed. His appearance in the midst of 
his moving troops was the signal for almost continuous cheer- 
ing. The day was fine, the marching smooth and the men in 
excellent spirits. They would fight under their new com- 
mander, or else all signs go for naught. 

The movement was evidently a surprise to the Confederates. 
But it did not take so able a general as Lee, long to understand 
the situation. By mid-day his signals from an elevated station 
were read by the Federals. They ran to the effect that Mine 
Run must become their line of operations. This would make 
the Confederate army face east instead of north, and while it 
rendered the Rapidan defences useless, would give them a 



THE WILDERNESS. 245 

strong front on Mine Run and the Wilderness. Grant's whole 
move along the Germanna Ford road had taken place about ten 
miles distant from, and quite parallel with, Mine Run. 

As soon as Grant discovered Lee's design, he knew it 
meant fight. But that was what he was there for. He 
dispatched to Burnside at 1.15 p. m. to start from Warrenton 
with his corps (9th) immediately and "make forced march 
until you reach this place. Start your troops now, the rear as 
soon as they can be got off, and require them to make a night 
march." And at "the same time one to Halleck, " Crossing the 
Rapidan effected. Forty-eight hours will demonstrate whether 
the enemy intends giving us battle this side of Richmond. 
Telegraph Butler that we have crossed the Rapidan." 

Grant considered this successful crossing as of great import- 
ance. He had not expected to cross without stout opposition, 
which the Confederates were in every way situated to make. 
Three times before, the Federal armies had been on the south 
side of that stream, each time to meet disaster. What would 
the fourth time bring ? The first great obstacle had been sur- 
mounted. The morning of the 5th of May awoke on ninety 
thousand to one hundred thousand men in a Wilderness, to be 
sure, and not in order of battle, yet so disposed that to prepare 
would be easy and to support each other a matter of certainty. 
There were no dangerous gaps in the columns, no treacherous 
loop-holes for an enemy to crawl through, no fag ends to be 
picked up in an unguarded moment. Even the heavy trains 
and weightier artillery had not been allowed to cut up the 
roads and clog the marching by crossing at the two fords, 
but had crossed, and were still crossing, on a heavier bridge 
at Culpeper Mine Ford, so that the army should be well 
between them and the enemy. 

On the night of the 4th, Grant and Meade, whose head- 
quarters were contiguous, discussed the plans of the morrow. 
What a thrill must have passed through the severely knit 



246 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

frame of the General-in-chief as despatches arrived from Sher- 
man, Butler and Crook, announcing that they too were on the 
move ! The silent, directory spirit of four armies, separated 
by thousands of miles, each with a momentous duty to per- 
form, and all aggregating hundreds of thousands of men, 
must have received a new inspiration amid the lonesome 
shadows of the Virginia pines, as it realized that at last the 
powers of the country were grandly co-operating for its preser- 
vation. 

Grant's position was doubly dangerous. The natural obsta- 
cles were formidable. If Lee should suddenly face eastward 
and attack, he would strike the Federals on their flank, and 
sever their corps and divisions. It was therefore very neces- 
sary to observe Lee closely. It was ascertained that on the 
afternoon of the 4th his army was well in motion, Ewell 
marching eastward on the Orange Turnpike, and Hill on the 
plank road, while Longstreet was coming from his camp near 
Gordonville. By nightfall Ewell had crossed Mine Run and 
bivouacked four miles beyond and within five miles of Warren's 
corps. 

Grant's orders for the 5th did not contemplate a battle on 
that day, but they changed the original line of march, and 
amounted to a disposition of forces for a fight. The whole 
army was faced westward to resist attack should it come. 
Wilson, with his cavalry, moved at 5 A. m. to Craig's Meeting 
House on the Catharpen road. Warren moved his corps at 
the same hour toward Parker's Store, with orders to connect 
his right with Sedgwick, who was to march up to the old 
Wilderness Tavern. Hancock was ordered to move from 
Chancellorsville to Shady Grove Church, at the junction of 
the Catharpen and Pamunkey roads. Burnside, when he 
arrived, was to occupy the space between Sedgwick's right 
and the Rapidan. Sheridan was to throw the main body of 
his cavalry well to the left and rear of Hancock. The army 







GRANT AND MEADE AT THE WILDERNESS. 



247 



248 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

would then be in a position to receive an attack, make one, or 
resume its southerly march. 

Even before this disposition of forces could be completed, it 
was discovered that Lee had bent every energy to strike Grant's 
flank ere he could dispose himself for battle. The roads run- 
ning eastward from Orange Court House, and crossing Grant's 
line of march at right angles, favored his design. Warren's 
forward movement had scarcely, begun before the enemy were 
uncovered in force. One regiment of Wilson's cavalry had 
been swept away. Warren's covering division, Crawford's, was 
quickly deployed for action. Information of the situation was 
sent to the rear. 

Orders came from Meade to Warren to force the fighting 
and develop Lee's strength and intention. Word was sent to 
Hancock to halt at Todd's Tavern and await developments. 
Sedgwick was ordered to push westward from the Germanna 
road and connect with the Fifth Corps, on the Orange pike. 
Grant came to the front with Meade, and the two took position 
on a knoll in an open space near Wilderness Tavern. 

By noon the position of the enemy was sufficiently made out 
to warrant attack. Warren ordered Griffin's and Wadsworth's 
divisions into action. The enemy's force in front was Ewell's. 
The Federal assault was determined and successful, though 
made through thickets that prevented any kind of order. The 
Confederates were driven back nearly a mile, pursued by 
Griffin's division. But Sedgwick's corps, owing to the density 
of the woods, had not yet pushed forward sufficiently to con- 
nect with Warren's right, occupied by Griffin. This officer, 
therefore, found his flank exposed, especially, since he had 
gone on in advance of the lines. The Confederates seized this 
opportunity to rally and attack. They made a merciless 
onslaught on Griffin's exposed right, forced him back rapidly, 
and captured two guns and a number of prisoners. Wadsworth 
was also driven back, and Crawford was thus left in a nearlv 



THE WILDERNESS. 249 

isolated position, and suffered a severe loss of men, mostly as 
prisoners. There was a decidedly panicky condition through- 
out the divisions of Warren's corps at this juncture. Every- 
thing was rendered very uncertain by the peculiarity of the 
ground, and the impossibility of alignment and concert, owing 
to the thick dwarf pines and absence of roads. But, fortunately, 
the Confederates were in no condition to follow their advan- 
tage. They had evidently been surprised at finding a battle 
forced on them, while, as yet, unprepared for it. They stopped 
pursuit and began to entrench for the purpose of holding what 
they had recovered. As it turned out they were in really a 
desperate strait, for Ewell was on the Confederate left, and had 
it been turned as the Federal assault presaged, Lee's whole 
army would have been in danger. 

When Grant was informed of the Federal repulse, he rode 
immediately to Warren's position. Such a glance as could be 
had through thicket and overhanging smoke told the necessity 
of holding it at all hazards. The lines must close promptly 
there. It would be a centre commanding the Orange turn- 
pike. Sedgwick could make it strong on the right. Hancock, 
who was already past Todd's Tavern on his way to Shady 
Grove Church, could be whirled in on the left by way of the Brock 
road, and thus the lines would stretch across the Orange plank 
road. Burnside would make a strong reserve as soon as he 
was entirely across the Rapidan. Therefore, Grant issued 
urgent orders through Meade to all these corps commanders — 
to Warren to hold his central position, to Sedgwick to make 
strong and prompt connection on Warren's right, to Burnside 
to make all haste with his reserve corps, but especially to Han- 
cock to push with all energy back and westward, so as to close 
the ugly gap which existed between Warren's left and his 
right. The Orange plank road ran directly through this gap, 
and along it the Confederate Hill was driving his corps with 
great rapidity. The only obstacle to him was Getty's division 



250 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 




GEN. A. P. HILL. 



of the Sixth Corps, which had been thrown out along the 
Orange plank road, to its junction with the Brock road, with 
orders to resist the Confederate advance as stoutly as possible, 
and until Hancock should have time to come up to his support. 

Hill dashed ahead, expecting to 
completely turn the Federal left at 
this point, but he encountered Getty, 
who stood obstinately in his way, and 
fought him with such desperation as 
to prevent him reaching the Brock 
cross road and marching north against 
Warren's left as he had designed. 
This gave Hancock time to get up. 
He fortified and held the line of the 
Brock road and made close connection 
with Warren, thus becoming the left of 
the Federal army, and presenting a firm obstacle to Hill's further 
advance along the Orange plank. It was now 4. 1 5 in the afternoon. 
Word came to Getty to attack Hill, and to Hancock to support 
him with his entire corps. Then began a determined advance 
through thicket and over brush. The lines of battle were close, 
and friend and foe were often mixed in the dense forest mazes. 
Birney's and Mott's divisions were ordered in by Hancock at 
once, and soon his entire corps was in the midst of the fray, 
and entirely outside of its line of works on the Brock road. 
Hays was killed and Getty was wounded, but refused to leave 
the field. For hours the infantry firing was incessant, and the 
issue doubtful. It was apparently a life and death struggle 
with muskets and rifles in that lonely forest, for neither cavalry 
nor artillery could be brought into effective service. 

And it was not only on Grant's left and with Hill that the 
battle raged. Warren's corps breasted a fresh storm from 
Ewell, and Sedgwick's on the right had been ordered in to 
turn the Confederate left, just as Hill was attempting to turn 



THE WILDERNESS. 



251 



the Federal left. Night was coming and neither force was 
making headway. Grant ordered Wadsworth's division, and 
Baxter's brigade of Robinson's division, toward Parker's Store 
to relieve the pressure on Hancock. Guided only by the com- 
pass or the sound of battle where apparently hottest, they 
made tedious and imperilled headway, as a band of skirmishers 
rather than a formidable force. It was night when they arrived 
in front of Hill, and the sounds of battle had ceased. 

Wilson, with his cavalry, had 
been isolated by Hill's march 
along the Orange plank. Sheridan 
expected he would return by a 
detour to Todd's Tavern. He sent 
Gregg there to meet him. It was 
a fortunate move. The Confeder- 
ate cavalry, moving from Hamil- 
ton crossing on the railroad run- 
ning south from Fredericksburg, 
had struck Wilson on his detour, 
and a hot fight had taken place. 
Wilson had cut his way through, 
and was pushing for the tavern, 

followed by the enemy. On Gregg's arrival, they turned on 
the pursuers, and after a severe action drove them entirely off. 
Sheridan now concentrated so as to hold the country from 
Shady Grove Church to Todd's Tavern, proceeded to cover the 
roads running to Spottsylvania Court House, protect the Fed- 
eral left, and guard the supply trains in the rear. 

Thus this day of hard conflict and great uncertainty ended. 
Night gave time for reflection, consultation and much needed 
rest. It was evident that two stubborn armies were firmly set 
face to face, and that hours of hard fighting had yielded 
nothing that looked like decided advantage to either. Yet 
there were results of mighty moment to Grant and his army, 




GEN. WILSON. 



252 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

as well as to the country. . The Lieutenant-General had been 
in contact with the ablest Confederate leader, and had not been 
sent back across the Rapidan, but was yet squarely before 
him, a match for him in daring and speed of execution, a foil 
upon his wisest strategy, an equally daring, speedy and original 
propounder of counter tactics. The movement across the 
Rapidan had brought Lee out of his works with his entire 
strength and rendered them useless, had forced him into new 
positions, had reduced his advantages to a minimum. And 
then when he attempted to strike Grant's flank by rushing 
Ewell along the Orange pike, he was anticipated and checked. 
He was equally foiled when he attempted to push Hill by way 
of the Orange plank road on to what was supposed to be an 
undefended and open Federal left. Every gap had been filled 
in time, and every flank had been converted into a serried 
front. But there was one advantage yet with the Confederates; 
they knew this terrible fighting ground. 

What of the morrow — the 6th ? Grant and Meade came 
together after nightfall. Both were well aware that the battle 
had only begun. Word came in that Longstreet was making 
forced marches along the Orange plank road to support Hill. 
It was therefore Lee's intention to overwhelm the Federal left 
and turn the army in a disorganized mass back upon the Rap- 
idan. But Burnside too was coming up to the Federal support 
with the fresh Ninth Corps. It was even now coming. By 
morning it would be nearly all there, or ought to be. As fast 
as it came it was thrown into position between Warren's left 
and Wadsworth's right, so as to pierce the Confederate centre 
at a time when it was thought it would be weakened to support 
Hill, or perhaps to prevent his being reinforced. Getty was 
to remain with the Second Corps while Hancock attacked with 
his entire line, Wadsworth was to attack Hill's left, Warren 
and Sedgwick were to engage along their entire front, to 
prevent reinforcements being sent to Hill. It made all the 



THE WILDERNESS. 253 

difference in the world who attacked first At least this was 
Grant's theory. His tactics had ever been to make his moves 
a counter to the enemy's designs. Persuaded beyond all per- 
adventure of Lee's intent to make a morning onset upon Han- 
cock and the left, he would anticipate it by an onset upon Hill 
and the Confederate right. He would make it early, first 
The order therefore was to attack at half past four. It began 
at five. 

But Longstreet was not yet quite in position. In order to 
disguise this fact Lee ordered Ewell to attack the Federal 
right at an hour quite as early. Wright's division of the Sixth 
Corps withstood him. The battle swept rapidly along Sedg- 
wick's lines to Warren's. The Federals gained ground, and 
Sedgwick's whole corps advanced some two hundred yards 
where it encountered the enemy behind a line of temporary 
breastworks thrown up the night before. This checked further 
advance, but the battle was kept up throughout the day on this 
part of the lines, amid all the uncertainties of a veiled situation. 

Off to the left things were more desperate. Hancock had 
moved with precision along both sides of the Orange plank 
road. He was not in such force as he expected to be, for it had 
been found that Longstreet had turned off the Orange plank road 
and was coming on the Catharpen road, further south, and almost 
directly on his flank. Barlow's division and all the artillery 
were detached to stop this and protect the defences on the 
Brock road. Still Hancock moved promptly with his remaining 
force, and Getty's division first struck Hill's columns directly. 
After a fierce and general encounter the Confederates were 
driven back toward Parker's Store, in great confusion. Many 
prisoners and flags were captured, and the enemy's dead strewed 
the ground. Hancock halted to reform his troops, disordered 
by the pursuit through the pines and scrub-oaks. This halt 
unfortunately gave Longstreet time to swing back to Hill's aid. 

The most anxious moments of the day were now on. Sedgwick 



254 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

on the right was holding tenaciously. Warren in the centre had 
been involved and one of his brigades had given way, but the 
disaster had been quickly repaired. Burnsidewas coming tardily 
up with his corps, so that the gap between the Second and 
Fifth, Hancock's and Warren's, was not, as yet, strongly 
bridged. Stuart's cavalry was in hot action with Sheridan, off 
to the extreme left at Todd's Tavern, which fact served to keep 
up the impression in Hancock's mind that a part of Long- 
street's force was still bent on attacking his flank from the 
Catharpen road. Grant and Meade were intent on studying 
the situation, the former unmoved, but supreme in intuitional 
perception and decisive action. 

If only Burnside would crowd that centre and make it strong 
for aggressive purposes the day might end gloriously, for Lee's 
centre must now be weak, since everything was turned to Hill's 
account. It was not to be so. Longstreet was now up and 
on Hill's right. He moved directly on Hancock's left front. 
When that officer perceived this he ordered Gibbon to bring 
in his left, which extended back to the Brock road, and come 
to his support. But too much time had been lost by the halt. 
Longstreet' s attack was furious and persistent, or rather the 
attack of Hill reinforced by Longstreet. Mott's division to 
the left caught its full force and fury, then Getty's, and so the 
entire line of the Second Corps, including Wadsworth's division 
of Warren's Sixth Corps. For hours it was a determined and 
bloody struggle, the Federals slowly and stubbornly receding 
Little by little, step by step, they lost the ground gained in 
the morning, and found themselves back on the line of the 
Brock road, which, as has been seen, Hancock had happily 
fortified with temporary breastworks. During this contest 
W r ads\vorth was killed and Longstreet badly wounded. Lee took 
Longstreet's place in person and, consolidating his forces, again 
hurled them with reckless impetuosity against Hancock. The 
woods in front were on fire, through which, and the dense 



THE WILDERNESS. 



255 



smoke, the Confederates pushed, resolved to capture the Brock 
road defences. They broke them in one or two places held 




GENERAL LONGSTREET. 



by parts of Mott's and Birney's divisions, but not suffi- 
ciently to prevent Hancock reforming his tired and shat- 



256 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

tered forces and checking further Confederate advance. Car- 
roll's brigade dashed in from a reserve position, swept the 
enemy from the breastworks, and inspired fresh confidence in 
the Federals. Still the front was uncertain by reason of under- 
growth and smoke, to which approaching darkness added 
gloom. Hancock therefore ordered Leasure's brigade of the 
Ninth Corps, then temporarily under him, to sweep the entire 
front. This he did with great spirit and success, marching 
along the entire front, at a distance of one hundred paces from 
the Federal breastworks, till he crossed the Orange plank road. 
Hancock's front was now clear. Yet the long, anxious 
day's work was not done. It will be remembered that as Burn- 
side crossed the Rapidan he would naturally fill the space 
between Sedgwick's right and the river. But the order for 
him to march up and take position in the centre, between 
Warren and Hancock, left Sedgwick's right in the air. To 
be sure Grant had ordered him to fortify it so as to make it 
strong. But just before sunset Ewell centered upon its 
extremity and made a bold push to turn it. The fighting was 
desperate for nearly an hour. Seymour's and Shaler's brigades 
were thrown into confusion and both generals captured with a 
large number of prisoners. For a few moments it looked as 
if Sedgwick could not save his corps. But he lost no time in 
throwing his imperilled right back arid re-establishing his line 
so that it stopped the fury of the onset. This ends the events 
of the 6th in the deep mazes of the Wilderness, if we except 
the fact that Sheridan, after a sharp engagement with Stuart, 
off in the direction of Todd's Store, had been ordered not to 
risk too much, but rather to hold well to Chancellorsville in 
order to keep the trains and supplies in the rear well cov- 
ered ; and the further fact that during the day Grant had 
ordered the destruction of all the bridges across the Rapidan 
except that at Germanna ford. The army had come south of 
the river to stay. Knowledge of a safe bridge in the rear is an 



THE WILDERNESS. 2$J 

awful inducement to panicky retreat in case of defeat, and a 
terrible invitation to a scouting enemy. 

Now darkness settled down and put a stop to the carnage. 
It had been a day of heavy losses to both armies. The hosts 
lay confronting each other on nearly the same ground they 
had occupied for twenty-four hours. Grant was not through 
the Wilderness, but neither was he back over the Rapidan. 
Lee had not pierced his flanks nor turned his wings, but was 
compelled, himself, to draw away from the front and back 
behind his breastworks. His brilliant designs of the morning 
had come to naught by night. The fighting had been the 
fiercest of the war. Grant admitted that he had seen nothing 
like it, not even at Shiloh. 

While there was not that about the day which could be 
called a victory by either combatant, Grant was satisfied. 
After ordering support to Sedgwick, he went to sleep as con- 
tentedly as if all his cohorts had been victorious. He had 
defeated all the cherished plans of the able Confederate leader. 
He did not expect to annihilate his army on its own ground, 
but he knew that he. had inflicted losses on it equal to his own. 
It was no place for either rapid or brilliant results, no place 
for manoeuvres and tactical experiments. The thing was to 
anticipate an offensive enemy, and if possible run counter to it, 
which Grant had done on both the 5th and 6th ; and after that 
to hold every force well in hand and keep it in solid mass so 
that to beat against it would be like charging unto death. 

In hauling off his forces along his entire line and placing 
them well away from the Federal front and behind their 
defences, Lee confessed that his plans had been thwarted, that 
he had found his superior in pluck and generalship, and that 
offensive operations must be turned into something more wary 
and conservative. The 6th of May may be said to have disillu- 
sioned him as to Grant's genius and power, and he never after- 
ward undertook a movement on so rash and bold a scale as 
17 



258 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

that designed to crush Grant in the Wilderness and to make 
an end of his army and campaign at a single blow. 

On the morning of the 7th, at an early hour, Grant threw out 
skirmishers a distance of a mile and a half to feel for the enemy, 
but they discovered no aggressive movement from Sedg- 
wick's right to Hancock's left. The entire Confederate army 
had withdrawn behind its works and showed no disposition to 
renew the contest. Sheridan sent Wilson from Chancellors- 
ville toward Germanna Ford to see if the enemy were interject- 
ing himself between Sedgwick and the river. This space was 
clear. By noon Warren pushed his corps forward to recon- 
noitre in force. There was some sharp firing, but no firm 
opposition. Lee had definitely abandoned his offensive move- 
ments. He, of course, could not be attacked in his invisible 
entrenchments. The battle of the Wilderness was over. 

The losses on the Federal side in this three days' fight made 
up from regimental returns, as stated by both General Badeau 
and Humphreys, were 2,265 killed, 10,220 wounded, 2,902 
missing, most of the latter being prisoners. The Confederate 
losses are not definitely known, but there is no reason to sup- 
pose they were less than those of the Federal force. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SPOTTSYLVAXIA. 



AFTER feeling the Confederate lines on the 7th of May, 
1864, and finding that Lee did not accept the offer of 
battle, Grant was at liberty to think that his front was free 
from further danger. He could not hope to assume a success- 
ful offensive with those interminable fastnesses of pines and 
scrub oaks before him, in the midst of which, and beyond, the 
Confederates were safely ensconced behind breastworks. 

What should be done now ? To retain that position was 
useless. It was no part of Grant's plans to remain idle. He 
had set his head toward Richmond. He must not give Lee a 
chance to escape him, nor to out-manceuvre him. He must 
not be thrown on the defensive. Confident of his strength, he 
must have opportunity to wield it on an open and more favor- 
able field. He had drawn Lee from his stronghold south of 
the Rapidan, and neutralized his fortifications. He would 
again draw him from his stronghold in the ''Wilderness," and 
along Mine Run, and thus neutralize his natural advantages of 
position. It was a bold scheme and full of danger. 

Was anything transpiring to help his determination ? Yes. 
W r ord came that Butler had landed his whole force at City 
Point, completely surprising the enemy ; also that Sherman 
was advancing on Johnston and expected to give battle on the 
7th. Knowing that Lee would not remain long inactive, think- 
ing it possible that he might be inclined to hasten to Richmond 
on account of the threatening aspect of affairs on the south of 
the James and determined to not let him escape with his army, 

259 



260 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Grant resolved to swing his whole army to the left and south, 
one step nearer the James, into a more open country, and past 
the enemy's extreme right. He could thus insert himself be- 
tween the Confederates and their capital, a thing they could 
not afford to permit. He could, further, hasten his proposed 
co-operation with Butler. 

On May 8th he wrote : "My effort will be to form a junc- 
tion with Butler as early as possible, and be prepared to meet 
any enemy interposing. My exact route to the James, I have 
not yet distinctly marked out." It should be always in mind 
that Grant was constantly receiving word of the movements of 
Sherman, Butler, Sigel and his other generals at remote points, 
and that the movements of the army, under his own eye, were 
as co-operative with those of his other armies as their's were 
expected to be with his. 

The orders for this gigantic and perilous movement went 
forth at 3 p. m., of May 7th. Success depended on secrecy and 
dispatch. Warren's Fifth Corps was again to take the lead. 
He was to withdraw from his central position and move by the 
Brock road, in the rear of Hancock, who was to hold his place 
till the corps was entirely past. Then Hancock was to follow, 
while Sedgwick and Burnside were to move by way of Chan- 
cellorsville and Piney Branch Church. The trains, which were 
centred at Chancellorsville, were to move to the left of all. 
Sheridan had been sent during the afternoon toward Todd's 
Tavern to clear the way for Warren, and had had a severe and 
successful engagement with Stuart's cavalry. In the evening, 
Grant and Meade made their way along the Brock road, where 
Hancock's corps lay. Their presence was the signal for 
cheering by the tired and wounded veterans, who now realized 
that they were not to retreat, but that the movement was to be 
in the direction of Richmond. 

All were now ready. Spottsylvania Court House was the 
destination, fifteen miles south. All night the troops and 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 2 6 1 

trains engaged in tedious, slow march, for the ways were few 
and crowded, and Sheridan, owing to the length and sharpness 
of the cavalry contest with Stuart, had not succeeded in getting 
possession of the salient points along either the Catharpen 
road, or that running from Shady Grove to Spottsylvania. 
What was worse, the movement of the trains in the afternoon, 
which had been reported to Lee, gave him the impression that 
Grant was about to retreat to Fredericksburg. In anticipation 
of this, he hurried Anderson, now commanding Longstreet's 
corps, toward Spottsylvania from Shady Grove Church, and 
even ordered Ewell to Todd's Tavern by way of the Catharpen 
road. Thus he had ordered his corps to the very destinations 
and partly over the same roads that Grant had his. This, 
Sheridan, partly through opposition from Stuart, and partly 
through change of orders from Meade, did not discover in time 
to prevent Merritt, who covered Warren's advance, from coming 
in contact with Stuart's cavalry in such force as to stop all pro- 
gress until relief came through Warren's head division under 
Robinson. 

By this time Anderson had reached a point just north of 
Spottsylvania, where the Brock road and that from Shady 
Grove meet. This obliged Wilson's cavalry to evacuate 
Spottsylvania. Anderson fortified his point, and lay in wait 
for the Federal approach. Soon Robinson appeared, and was 
met with a murderous fire, which drove him back in confusion. 
Warren came upon the scene to find the enemy in force and 
strongly posted right across his path to Spottsylvania. Jaded 
as his troops were with their all night march, and almost con- 
tinuous fighting since daybreak, he threw Griffin's division 
fonvard on Robinson's right. This division met with the same 
hot reception. Crawford's division and Cutler's (formerly Wads- 
worth's) were now brought into line, the gallant Warren head- 
ing a brigade in person, and after a severe fight the Confeder- 
ates were repulsed on both their wings. Warren then straight- 



262 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ened his lines and made them firm, preferring not to risk 
another assault till he should be reinforced. 

Hancock had been halted at Todd's Tavern to guard it 
against Hill's approach up the Catharpen road. Sedgwick 
had arrived at Piney Branch Church. Burnside was at Aldrich's 
on the left. When it became known that Warren was con- 
fronted, Sedgwick was sent to his support with all haste, and 
with the hope that he and Warren would be able to crush 
Anderson before the rest of Lee's army could get to him. 
Burnside and Hancock were also notified to be ready to move. 

Early's division of Ewell's corps was reported as close to 
Todd's Tavern on the Catharpen road. Hancock at once sent 
out a force to meet him and protect his flank. He succeeded 
in checking his progress, and Early, finding his point of destin- 
ation occupied, withdrew. When Sedgwick reached Warren, 
an attack on Anderson was ordered. But it was late and the 
attack feeble, so nothing was gained by it. By this time Lee 
had become aware of the intent and magnitude of Grant's move- 
ment. He knew that Spottsylvania and not Fredericksburg 
was his objective, and that a daring flank movement and not a 
retreat was in progress. As Anderson was, by sheer accident, 
directly across Grant's line of march to Spottsylvania, that was 
the point for concentration, that the line to sustain. It was a 
good one for defence, and would force the Federals to assume 
a most difficult offensive, if they ever got through it at all. 

Meade was very apprehensive of his flank at Todd's Store. 
He kept Hancock there so long that Lee's work of concentra- 
tion went on rapidly and without further molestation, faster 
even than that of the Federals after it once began in earnest. 
The evening of the 9th of May, 1864, closed with Lee making 
all haste to occupy the position so happily secured by Ander- 
son, and Grant using every endeavor to bring his army into a 
solid confronting line. 

The scene was some two miles north of Spottsylvania. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 263 

A. ridge stretched from the Ny to the Po, which are 
here about four miles apart. It was not a rugged ridge, but 
rolling and heavily timbered, affording excellent opportunity 
for purely defensive operations. The two rivers formed safe 
barriers for the flanks. The morning of the 9th would find 
the enemy in possession of this formidable barrier to further 
southern progress. 

It was not as Grant nor any of his men would have had it. 
That all felt a sense of disappointment over the prospect was 
nothing more than natural. But it could not be helped now. 
Grant was not discouraged. He was not even put out with 
the delays and errors of the previous day nor with the greater 
blunders of the enemy which fate had turned to their profit. 
He faced the situation with a full sense of its gravity and with 
that same command of self and all the forces and energies of 
the hourawhich had ever characterized him amid emergency. 
As occasions rose, no matter how desperate, he always rose 
with them. In all his military history he was never out- 
generaled by adversity. 

When the morning of the 9th came Lee lay stretched 
from the Ny to the Po, in a semi-circle about Spott- 
sylvania, commanding every northern road to the town. 
Anderson held his left extending to the Po with Long- 
street's old corps. Ewell held the centre, facing north and 
east. Hill came in on the right so as to guard the Fredericks- 
burg road and the Ny crossings. 

Warren remained in his position of the day before, opposite 
Anderson. Sedgwick lay to his left, and Hancock occupied 
the Federal right, though holding rearward along the Brock 
road as far as Todd's Tavern. Burnside left one division at 
Piney Branch Church to guard the trains. The rest of his 
corps was moved toward Gate's so as to cover the extreme 
Federal left. This disposition brought the two armies into 
close fighting proximity. Lee was busy fortifying, Grant 



264 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



looking out for a weak spot to strike. The former was clearly 
on the defensive, the latter actively offensive, or soon to be. 

Where now was Sheridan ? At noon on the 8th he had 
been placed under orders to strike Lee's rear, cut communica- 
tions, and when out of forage, to make for the James, replenish 
out of Butler's stores, and return to the Army of the Potomac. 
There was to be neither peace nor safety for Richmond and 
the enemy's rear so long as Grant was in command. 

Grant's headquarters were immediately in Warren's rear. 
During the afternoon of the 9th, while engaged in examining 

the Confederate lines, General Sedg- 
wick of the Sixth Corps was killed 
by being struck full in the face with 
a bullet. The grief throughout the 
entire army occasioned by this loss 
was profound, for he was a steady, 
brave and able soldier and one much 




beloved. 



Grant regarded his death 



GEN. SEDGWICK. 



as a greater disaster than if he had 

lost an integral part of his army. 

He was succeeded by General H. G. 

Wright of the First Division. 
Early's disappearance from the Catharpen road and Han- 
cock's flank or right, enabled that officer to extend and 
strengthen his position. He swung his right wing around till 
it struck the Po. Burnside pushed Wilcox's division 
down to the Fredericksburg crossing of the Ny, on the 
extreme left. It succeeded in getting south of the stream, and 
soon had a good position there. The wings of the enemy 
were thus well enveloped and for a very wise purpose. 

Grant had perceived all day that Lee was gradually pushing 
troops toward his right on the Ny and in the direction 
of Fredericksburg. He interpreted this to mean that Lee was 
anxious to turn his left and throw himself between Grant and 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 265 

Fredericksburg. This would have been disastrous to the 
Federal trains and supplies. With equal skill, and as a per- 
fect counter, Grant, over and above the precaution of prevent- 
ing this disaster by pushing Burnside well to the left, resolved 
on the demonstration on his right, which Hancock so vigor- 
ously executed. It had the desired effect, for it brought Early 
from Lee's right to his left. Lee saw quite too plainly that 
any advantage to him by being between Grant and Fredericks- 
burg would be far more than counterbalanced by permitting 
the Federal army to whirl by his left and on to Richmond. 

On the morning of the 10th, Hancock forced his demon- 
stration on the right by crossing the Po with Brook's 
brigade of Barlow's division and parts of Birney's and Gib- 
bons' divisions. They found the enemy strongly posted on 
the rising ground beyond the river and did not attack. Mean- 
while it had been decided to attack from the centre. There- 
fore Hancock called in his forces beyond the Po. This 
was the signal for a furious charge upon them by the Confed- 
erates. But the charge was resisted, and the difficult task of 
crossing a deep stream on a retreat and under fire was suc- 
cessfully achieved, though not without heavy losses on both 
sides. 

In order to relieve the struggling forces of Hancock, Warren 
made an assault on the Confederate centre, aided by Wright, 
which was unsuccessful except for the information gained of 
the ground. He tried another diversion intended, to clear the 
ground in his front of the almost impenetrable underbrush. 
But this too failed. Yet his voice favored the third and grand 
assault for which all were ready by 4 p. m. 

The brunt of this was to be borne by Wright's and W 7 arren's 
corps and Gibbon's and Mott's divisions of Hancock's corps. 
The point of attack was a densely wooded hill in front of War- 
ren, crowned with earthworks and subject to cross and enfil- 
ading fires of both musketry and artillery. The approach was 



266 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

through a dense growth of dead cedars whose sharp, interlacing 
branches made progress almost impossible. Grant and Meade 
stood on an elevation to watch the charge, but, as in the Wil. 
derness, the thicket and smoke obscured everything. Warren's 
men struggled manfully through the forest depths amid a 
fearful fire. At one or two points they scaled the heights and 
entered the enemy's breastworks. But the fire was too terrific 
to be withstood. They wavered, fell back through enfilading 
volleys, and were lost in retreat through the thick woods 
which, to add to the horror of the situation, suddenly took 
fire, smothering the wounded in smoke or burning them to 
death. Fortunately the enemy showed no disposition to pursue, 
but hugged their works closely. 

Further to the left and in front of Wright's corps was an 
impenetrable morass. A little to the left of this and in front 
of Russell's division a weak spot was discovered in the enemy's 
lines. A storming party of twelve picked regiments was 
formed for an attack on this point. It was led by Col. Upton 
of the 1 20th N. Y. Volunteers, supported by Mott's division 
of the Second Corps. Late in the afternoon he led them on, 
formed in four lines. The men rushed forward as if inspired, 
climbed the hill in the face of an incessant fire, broke through 
the enemy's breastworks, and captured a brigade of infantry 
and a battery of artillery. Here Upton turned his victorious 
forces right and left, and drove the enemy along his entrench- 
ments for a. quarter of a mile either way. But Mott was too 
slow with his support. Upton held on till nightfall and then 
withdrew, his gallant soldiers weeping at the thought of losing 
what they had so hardly earned. He brought his prisoners 
off, but left the captured guns behind. 

Hancock now came to the centre with Birney's division. A 
furious cannonade was kept up all the time that Warren was 
reforming his broken forces. At half past six the undaunted 
Fifth with two divisions of the Sixth were led to another 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 267 

assault Again they penetrated the pine recesses, again 
emerged in front of the enemy's breastworks, and again broke 
them in many places, only to be forced into retreat. Generals 
Stevenson and Rice were killed, and the losses were heavy on 
both sides. This assault was made before Upton withdrew, 
and it was designed to help him to save what he had gained. 

On the extreme left Burnside had pushed his Ninth Corps 
well up on the Confederate right, and had in reality turned it. i 
But he had thus isolated himself from the other corps, and 
was forced to contract his lines, thus losing what might have 
been a grand opportunity to demoralize the enemy's flank. 

When the shades of the 10th of May, 1864, settled on that 
ghastly field, there was little room for congratulation over 
successes by either of the armies. True, Lee was in his 
breastworks, but they had been broken again and again. 
He had made no offensive movement, had not even over- 
whelmed Barlow, when only two brigades with a deep stream 
to cross were exposed to his whole left wing. Grant's con- 
fidence remained unshaken. He knew the full meaning of 
Lee's caution, and felt that it was a confession of his in- 
ability to cope with the Federal forces in an open field. He 
was more than ever convinced of the bravery and sterling 
qualities of his trusted officers and their commands. Nothing 
could have exceeded the gallantry, persistency and im- 
petuosity of their repeated charges, and but for the draw- 
back of Mott's failure to come to time, and Burnside's tardi- 
ness in pushing his advantage on the left, Upton's splendid 
conquest would have been sustained, and both Warren and 
Hancock would have swept the Confederate breastworks in 
their last assault. 

On the morning of May nth Grant sent the celebrated dis- 
patch to Halleck which gave the country the assurance that 
there was a master in the field south of the Rapidan. It 
ran: "We have now ended the sixth day of very hard 



268 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

fighting. The result to this time is much in our favor, but 
our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy. 
We have lost to this time eleven general officers, and prob- 
ably twenty thousand men killed, wounded and missing. 
I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We have 
taken over four thousand prisoners, while he has taken from 
us but few, except a few stragglers. I am now sending back 
to Belle Plain all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions 
and ammunition, and propose to fight it out on this line if it takes 
all summer. ... I am satisfied that the enemy is very shaky, 
and are only kept up to the mark by the greatest exertions on 
the part of their officers, and by keeping them entrenched in 
every position they take." 

And fight it out he did, against obstacles which to almost 
any other general would have seemed insurmountable. There 
came in on this day inspiriting news from Butler, to the effect 
that he had cut the communications south of Petersburg and 
had defeated Hill at that place. "General Grant will not be 
troubled with any further reinforcements to Lee from Beaure- 
gard's forces." But what if Lee should fall back rapidly and 
strike an overwhelming blow at Butler ? To keep him ever- 
lastingly engaged was Grant's first preventive. Second, Sher- 
idan must, by this time, have greatly interfered with the possi- 
bility of such a disaster. Yes, for word came at a later hour 
that the cavalry had destroyed ten miles of the Virginia Cen- 
tral Railroad, with cars, engines, telegraph wires, a million and 
a half of rations, and nearly all the medical stores of Lee's 
command. 

The nth was spent in reconnoitering. Lee's right swung 
off so as to conform to the direction of the Ny. Hancock 
was ordered to move his corps, as soon as night came on, to 
the rear of Warren and Wright and over to the left, so as to 
join Burnside in a morning attack on the angle in Lee's right. 
Burnside was notified and urged to be ready. Warren and 



27O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Wright were to keep their corps as close to the enemy as 
possible, so as to take advantage of any weakening of his lines 
in their front. 

Hancock formed with Barlow's and Birney's divisions in 
front, the latter supported by Mott's, with Gibbon's in reserve. 
The front was a steep and thickly wooded slope, with a clear- 
ing about the angle in Lee's line. The direction had to be 
taken by the compass. At 4.35 on the morning of the 12th 
the order to advance was given. Barlow's columns marched 
solidly over the enemy's pickets without firing a shot. Bir- 
ney's made way with more difficulty through marsh and 
wood, but kept well up. Once through these difficult approaches, 
the two columns pushed at quick time up the slope, and when 
half way up, burst into tremendous cheers. Then taking the 
double quick without orders, they rolled like an avalanche 
over the breastworks, tearing away the abattis, engaging in 
fierce combat with bayonet and clubbed musket, and finally 
establishing themselves within the fortified lines. Barlow and 
Birney entered simultaneously. They captured thirty field 
guns, four thousand prisoners, including two generals, Johnson 
and Stewart, several thousand stand of arms, and upwards of 
thirty colors. The Confederate surprise was complete. Their 
broken columns fled, pursued by the Federals toward Spott- 
sylvania, till checked by an inner line of entrenchments. Han- 
cock quickly apprised Grant of his success. This was at 

545 A. M. 

Grant immediately sent the news to Burnside and urged 
haste. That officer was on the move as early as Hancock, 
with Potter's division in front, supported by Crittenden, and 
with Wilcox in reserve. Potter had forced the fighting up to 
the Confederate lines, beyond the angle, and had carried a 
portion, but could not hold them. By 6.15 Burnside reported 
that he had made a connection with the Second Corps on the 
left face of the angle. Hancock, from the other face, sent for 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 



271 



reinforcements. But Grant had anticipated him by ordering 
the Sixth to his support. Now Johnson was brought a pris- 
oner to Grant. While talking with him, word came from 
Hancock, " I have finished up Johnson and am now going for 
Early." Soon another came, " Have taken three thousand 
prisoners and turned the enemy's guns on themselves." An 
entire division had been captured, including the famous 
" Stonewall " brigade. 




GEN. "STONEWALL" JACKSON. 



Again Grant urged Burnside to push so as to keep up con- 
nection with Hancock. And when informed that he (Burn- 
side) had lost connection with Hancock, Grant hastily 
pencilled the reply : " Push the enemy ; that's the best way to 



272 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

connect" Hancock's corps needed repairing for further 
action. Perhaps the Sixth should have been up by this time, 
or near enough to have made its presence felt. This would have 
simplified Hancock's task of reforming; at least, it would have 
prevented Lee from doing the same. Lee got his men in line 
again, heavily reinforced, and knowing the critical nature of the 
situation hurled them mercilessly on Hancock. The Federals 
fell back to the breastworks they had captured in the morning, 
and lined either side of the salient or triangle, where they 
turned the works the enemy had constructed against the 
builders. Here they held defiantly against repeated assaults. 
Wright came upon the scene with his corps. He at once 
occupied the captured works on the right of the salient, and 
his men were hardly in position when they too became the 
object of a furious assault. Mott's division, which formed 
Hancock's right, joined the Sixth at the salient, Birney hold- 
ing the captured entrenchments on Mott's left, with Gibbon 
next and Barlow on the extreme left. Hancock brought 
his artillery up and, posting it on a high spot behind, 
played it over the heads of his own men into the enemy's 
ranks. Still the Confederates assaulted again and again, 
and the Federal troops at length ran out of ammunition. 
They were relieved by fresh ones, and held on to the 
breastworks in spite of the fierce and reckless charges of 
their foes. 

When Grant dispatched Wright directly to Hancock's aid, 
he at the same time, as has been seen, urged Burnside to 
co-operate with all his might. Warren too had been ordered 
to attack along his front as a means of relief to Hancock. 
Though this order was issued soon after Hancock had notified 
Grant and Meade of his success of the morning, Warren 
seemed to drag in his preparations and onset. Both these gen- 
erals were greatly chagrined at this delay, and at 10.40 A. m. 
Grant directed Meade in writing : " If Warren fails to attack 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 273 

promptly, send Humpreys to command his corps, and relieve 
him." 

This unusual manifestation of anxiety on the part of Grant 
showed how keenly alive he was to the situation and how 
much he appreciated the importance of Hancock's foothold 
within the enemy's lines. As Sherman said at Chattanooga : 
" The secret of the confidence your officers repose in you (Grant) 
is that they know you are thinking of them wherever they 
may be." A dispatch of a very peremptory kind was also 
sent to Burnside, to the effect that he should advance at once 
or send his troops directly to Hancock. But Burnside Avas 
really doing better than any one knew. He had found his 
ground difficult, and a strong and well-protected enemy in his 
front, whom he resolutely engaged and against whom he had 
made headway notwithstanding one or two repulses. He held 
the foe to their front all the morning and afternoon, and thus 
kept them from concentrating against the Federal centre. 

Warren was at last ready and made, at first, a formidable 
demonstration on the enemy's left, but without success. This 
was followed by three other less spirited charges, none of 
which made an impression on the enemy's strong lines. Grant 
now broke up the Fifth Corps for the day, sending Cutler's 
division directly to Wright and Griffin's to Hancock, leaving 
Warren with the rest to hold what was now the right of the 
Federal army. Strange to say the enemy took no advantage 
of this new disposition of forces, which confirmed Grant in the 
impression that their left had been really weakened for the 
purpose of concentrating against Hancock and Wright. 

Lee made five distinct assaults on Hancock's and Wright's 

positions during the day. Fighting was never closer nor 

harder. Flags were often borne to within a few paces of each 

other, and the fire was so sharp and concentrated as to riddle 

the trunks of large trees till they fell. The whole forest was 

blighted, and the dead were piled up three and four deep 
18 



274 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

where the lines came in close contact. Night did not bring 
cessation. The assaults weakened, but a murderous fire was 
kept up till near midnight, when the Confederates sullenly 
retired to their inner lines, leaving the Federals to hold the 
positions they had gained in the morning. It was raining 
now, and both armies sought such rest as they could find, after 
an incessant musketry fire of nearly twenty-four hours. 

The losses of the 1 2th were heavy on both sides, and prob- 
ably equal. Lee lost four thousand prisoners and thirty cannon. 
He made his inner line strong, so that the Federal successes 
were moral rather than tactical. Yet the day had given stro ng 
proof to Grant of the quality of his men and especially of his 
officers. His dispatch to Washington ran: " The eighth day 
of the battle closes, leaving between three and four thousand 
prisoners in our hands for the day's (12th of May) work, in- 
cluding two general officers and over thirty pieces of artillery. 
The enemy are obstinate, and seem to have found their last 
ditch. We have lost no organization, not even that of a com- 
pany, whilst we have destroyed and captured one division 
(Johnson's), one brigade (Dole's), and one regiment entire of 
the enemy." 

The next day Grant nominated Wright, Gibbon and Hum- 
phreys major-generals of volunteers, and Caroll and Upton as 
brigadiers; while Hancock was named for the grade of brig- 
adier-general in the regular army. The same letter said : 
" General Meade has more than met my most sanguine 
expectations. He and Sherman are the fittest officers for large 
commands I have come in contact with." He then advised 
their promotion to major-generals in the regular army. 

General Grant did not rest on that night of May 12th, nor 
any of his staff, till orders for the 13th were issued. His mind 
was quickly made up what to do. If Lee was about to slip 
away, he would know it. If not, he must fight on a new line. 
His partly turned right must be wholly turned. The main 



276 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

roads from Spottsylvania to Richmond must be threatened — 
captured if possible. The fact is, Grant was going to Richmond. 
Lee was in the way. He could not march over him. There- 
fore he would fight him and march or manoeuvre round him. 
Headway must be made somehow, for were not all Grant's 
armies moving to one point — the Confederate capital ? 

Burnside was ordered to try the enemy's right at half-past 
three in the morning. Meade was instructed to " push to see 
what they were doing." Therefore, the whole Federal front 
made as lively and early a move as was possible under the cir- 
cumstances. It was found that the Confederates were busy 
strengthening their inner lines. The remainder of the 13th 
was dedicated to burying the dead and caring for the wounded. 
Mott's division was consolidated with Birney's. 

Meade was ordered to withdraw Wright and Warren, after 
dark, from their positions on Hancock's right, and send them 
to the left of Burnside, the two corps to attack as soon as they 
were in line. Now, Burnside had crossed the Ny, and was 
really facing westward. To throw two corps on his left would 
change the whole Federal line to a north and south one, ex- 
tending from the salient held by Hancock to, possibly, the river 
Po, with Spottsylvania westward from its centre. 

The two corps moved amid a terrific rain storm, which swelled 
the Ny, filled the marshes, and made the roads almost impas- 
sable. The Ny had to be forded in its swollen condition, for 
there were no bridges. It was daylight before these commands 
reached their destination, and by this time the ground was so 
sodden, and the rain was beating so mercilessly, that an assault 
was out of the question. Warren took position on Burnside's 
left, and the Sixth Corps held the extreme left of the army. 
Wright had some fighting to get his lines established, but 
succeeded without much loss. 

Here, then, was an entirely new position for the day (May 
14th). The movement forced Lee to shift his strength toward 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 277 

his right to meet the threat. This left the lines in front of 
Hancock comparatively deserted. Taking advantage of this, 
Grant threw Hancock to the rear of his centre, as a reserve, 
and with orders to move either to the right or left, as emer- 
gency might require. Birney's division, however, still remained 
on Burnside's right. On the 15th and 16th, all army operations 
were suspended, on account of the rains and terrible condition 
of the ground. 

But good word was coming in to Grant from other fields. 
On May 15th, word came from Averill that he had cut the 
East Tennessee railroad at New river, and destroyed a depot 
of supplies at Dublin, West Virginia. Also, from Butler, that 
he had carried the works at Drury's Bluff, an important outpost 
of Richmond. On the 16th, Sherman reported the evacuation 
of Dalton by Johnston, and that he was in pursuit. Sheridan 
reported that he had destroyed both the Virginia Central and 
Fredericksburg railroads for miles in the rear of Lee ; had 
fought, routed and killed Stuart, the best cavalry leader of the 
Confederacy, and had carried the outer lines of Richmond. 
There was consternation in Confederate circles. The author- 
ities were not only frightened, but fell to accusing one another 
of incompetency and treachery. The President prepared for 
flight. 

On May 17th, Wright was ordered to demonstrate on the 
left, and if ground were gained Hancock was to swing to his 
support, or, if possible, further around on Lee's right. But 
the country in front was found too difficult, on account of dense 
undergrowth. So both the Second and Sixth were ordered to 
make an all-night march to the right again, and an early 
attack, on the 18th, from the position captured on the 12th. 
Burnside was to support and Warren to enfilade with his 
artillery. The enemy had made his inner line of defences un- 
expectedly strong. The assaulting corps made a gallant charge, 
but could not break the slashings, or penetrate the abattis. 



278 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



They made several gallant attempts to break the obstructions, 
but were forced to give up the impossible task. By 10 A. M. 




GEN. J. E. B. STUART. 



of the 1 8th, the action was over. The base of supplies had 
been changed to Acquia Creek Landing, the northern terminus 



SPOTTSYLVAXIA. 



279 




GEX. S1GEL. 



of the Fredericksburg railroad. This bespoke the use of that 
road for some purpose. 

The 1 8th was a gloomy day for General Grant. Do his best, 
he could not budge Lee from his strong defensive and inner 
lines. Word came that Sigel had been beaten at New Market, 
in the Shenandoah Valley, and was 
retreating to Strasburg. Though 
Halleck, when sending this word, 
advised Sigel's removal, Grant sim- 
ply asked that all the forces he (Sigel) 
could spare be taken from him and 
sent to the Army of the Potomac, 
leaving only enough behind for 
strictly defensive operations in the 
Valley. Sigel's defeat was a source 
of great regret to Grant, for he had 
just sent word to Halleck to order him to push to Staunton, 
and effect a junction with either Crook or Averill. 

Butler reported that he had been attacked at Drury's Bluff, 
and forced back to his fortified lines. Here was a list of mis- 
fortunes calculated to unnerve the strongest. They gave rise 
to a series of new emergencies, which called for the wisest 
generalship and most heroic action. On May 18th, after the 
unsuccessful assault by his right, he mapped to Meade the 
work of the 19th. Wright and Burnside should hug the 
enemy's works as closely as possible, and as if about to attack. 
On the night of the 19th, Hancock should swing to the entire 
left, strike the line of the Fredericksburg railroad, and, in con- 
nection with a strong cavalry force, make his way as far toward 
Richmond as possible, fighting, if need be. This would draw 
Lee out of his works. Then the other three corps were to 
follow as quickly as possible, and to attack before the enemy 
had time to entrench. Strategy was to do what direct assault 
could not achieve. 



280 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Lee evidently surmised something of the kind. At any 
rate, he made a strong counter movement on Grant's right, by 
means of Ewell's corps, which came out of its fortifications, 
crossed the Ny, and made a furious attack on Tyler's division, 
which was in reserve, and was composed of untried troops. A 
wagon train was captured, and Tyler's forces were at first thrown 
into confusion. But he quickly rallied them and, assisted by 
parts of the Second and Fifth, which were promptly sent to 
his relief, and by Ferrero's division of colored troops, drove 
the enemy back into his lines again, retaking the lost wagons. 

Again Grant was overwhelmed with bad news, and this time 
from Banks. He ordered that he be superceded. But his order 
had been anticipated by creating a new district in Louisiana 
and Texas, and placing Major-General Canby in command. 
Worse news, too, came from Butler. This made Grant most 
anxious to reach the James, to look into the situation himself, 
and make his co-operation as speedy and effective as possible. 
Hunter was placed in charge of affairs in the Shenandoah 
Valley, with orders to defend it, and push to Staunton, if 
possible. 

As it was not until nightfall of the 19th that Ewell was 
repelled and things straightened upon the Federal right, this 
postponed the contemplated movement to the left that night. 
Hancock therefore appeared, on the morning of the 20th, in 
his old place on the enemy's front. The army was glad for a 
day's rest. It had been on the move, amid all kinds of obsta- 
cles, and through terrific fighting, for fifteen days, with very 
few opportunities for even brief repose. 

The Federal losses around Spottsylvania, from the 8th to 
the 2 1st of May, were 2271 killed, 9360 wounded, 1970 missing. 
Those of Lee's army, outside of the 4000 prisoners taken, are 
unknown. That they were heavy must be conceded, and pro- 
bably they very nearly equalled the Federal losses. 

Sheridan's operations had meanwhile been perfectly success- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA. 28 1 

ful; he had scoured the country south of Lee, destroyed 
railroads and supplies, fought and defeated Stuart, ridden into 
the outer fortifications of Richmond, and dashed through 
White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, and on to Haxall's Landing, 
where he communicated with Butler at Bermuda Hundred. 
The raid proved that the Federal cavalry was under good 
leadership — superior to that of the Confederates — and it im- 
proved the tone and fighting qualities of the troopers, so as to 
fit them for that conspicuous part they were to play in the after 
history of the war. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE NORTH ANNA. 



GRANT'S greatest fear was now, and had been for some 
days, that the defeat of Sigel and Butler would enable 
the enemy to detach reinforcements from in front of these offi- 
cers to Lee. We shall see how well he counted. 

The Fredericksburg railroad runs from Aquia creek landing 
on the Potomac, through Fredericksburg, to Richmond. Two 
miles south of the North Anna river it crosses the Virginia 
Central, also running to Richmond. The point of crossing is 
Hanover Junction, one full of strategy, for it commanded the 
line of Confederate supplies from the West and South. Lee 
could reach this point by the telegraph road in twenty-two 
miles. Grant would have to deflect eastward till he reached 
the Fredericksburg railroad, and march by it to the North 
Anna, a distance of thirty-three miles. Lee's line of march 
would therefore again be an inner one, and the shorter by ten 
to fifteen miles. 

The orders for the morning of the 20th were reissued for 
the morning of the 2ist of May. The Ninth and Sixth were 
to hold hard to Lee's front, while Hancock's Second and, 
Warren's Fifth swung to the left and got far enough to the 
south to interpose between the enemy and the North Anna. 
Hancock was to strike the railroad at Guinea Station and 
march to Bowling Green, then to Milford, and take a position 
south of the Mattapony, fighting his way, if need be. He 
started at daylight and arrived at Milford before night. Here 
he met a brigade of Beauregard's command on its way from 



THE NORTH ANNA. 



283 



Richmond to join Lee. The defeat of Butler at Drury's Bluff 
had made this possible. The brigade was quickly driven back 
and the bridge across the Mattapony secured. Warren fol- 
lowed as closely as possible. Lee was on the alert, but was 
not bold to take advantage of this daring movement. He 
knew the value of his inner lines and of a studied defensive, 
and on these the Wilderness and Spottsylvania had taught 
him to rely as his only means of safety — these and a Fabian 
policy. 

On the night of the 21st Grant's headquarters were at 
Guinea Station. At this exposed point, with no corps near 
except Warren's, in danger of 
being cut off by Confederate 
cavalry, he read Lee's signals, 
which told him that his move- 
ments had been discovered, and 
that even now steps were being 
taken to circumvent them. The 
utmost skill and precision were 
therefore necessary on Grant's 
part, for of all army movements 
that of a flanking operation in 
the- presence of an enemy is the 
most hazardous. 

Where were his other two corps ? Burnside had been 
ordered to leave the Spottsylvania front as soon after Warren 
as he could, and to march directly south to Thornburg on the 
Ta. But if the enemy opposed his crossing of the Po at Stan- 
nard's Mill, as was expected, he was to deflect to the left and 
follow Hancock and Warren. Burnside found a strong Con- 
federate force at Stannard's, and so turned to the left on the 
route taken by the Second and Fifth. It was now evident that 
Lee was making the most of his inner line of march, and would 
in all probability reach the North Anna first. 




GEN. HANCOCK. 



284 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Meanwhile, at Spottsylvania, an attack had been made on the 
Sixth Corps, which remained to hold the old Federal lines. It 
was doubtless a trial of their front by the enemy to see what 
force yet opposed them there, for it was not a determined 
attack, and was easily repulsed by Russell's division. On the 
morning of the 22d, Burnside reported at Guinea Station, and 
Wright's Sixth was following as the rear guard of the army. 

Hancock had been halted at Milford till all the corps could 
get up. Once within supporting distance, Warren's Fifth was 
thrown off to the right toward the direct telegraph road, which 
it struck and found free from the enemy, Lee having already 
passed along it. Burnside was thrown out to the left. On 
this date Lee telegraphed to Richmond that he was at Han- 
over Junction and had heard nothing of the enemy east of the 
Mattapony. The enemy were already south and west of that 
stream and close on his rear. He was evidently massing to 
dispute a passage of the Pamunkey, whereas Grant was strik- 
ing for the North Anna. He (Lee) was also now in receipt of 
valuable reinforcements both from the Shenandoah Valley and 
Richmond. 

On the 23d the Federal army moved for the river. There 
were three known crossings, one at the telegraph road, half a 
mile west of the Fredericksburg railroad, one at Oxford three 
miles above, and one at Jericho, three miles above Oxford. 
Warren was to cross at Jericho ford ; Hancock at the telegraph 
road bridge and extend his line east to the Fredericksburg 
railroad, while Burnside was to take the Oxford crossing. 
Wright was to follow and support Warren. It was known 
that Lee was south of the river, and a battle for the crossing 
was expected. But Lee had massed below, expecting Grant 
to strike the Pamunkey, which is formed by the junction of the 
North and South Anna below Hanover Junction. He therefore 
barely got up in time to dispute the passage of the North 
Anna. 



THE NORTH ANNA. 285 

At noon Warren crossed, partly on a pontoon and partly- 
fording, at Jericho. The opposition was brisk but soon over- 
come. By 5 p. m. he was well into position on the south bank, 
with Crawford on his left and Griffin in the centre. But as 
Cutler was taking position on the right, he was furiously 
assailed by Hill's entire corps. Meredith's brigade broke, and 
a general rout was threatened. But the broken columns were 
rallied and the attack was returned with such vigor as to 
repulse the Confederates with heavy losses in killed and 
wounded, and several hundred prisoners. The Fifth was then 
let alone. 

As soon as the firing of the Fifth was heard, Hancock was 
ordered to advance and cross the telegraph road, or County, 
bridge. The Confederates had covered the bridge with a 
heavy line of breastworks. But the road and field in front 
were open. Birney was directed to clear the way. A splendid 
charge by Pierce's and Eagan's brigades, 
under cover of a heavy fire from the 
artillery of the corps, carried the 
entrenchments and sent the enemy 
pell-mell across the bridge. Many of 
them were drowned and hundreds 
taken prisoners. But it was now dark 
and Hancock did not force a crossing. 

Burnside got tediously to Oxford 
crossing, but did not go over. He 
entrenched so as to hold the fording, 

and remained under orders to go either to Hancock or cross 
in the morning. Wright found his way to Jericho during the 
night and was prepared to support Warren. That night Grant 
telegraphed: " In the face of the enemy it is doubtful whether 
troops can be crossed, except where the Fifth and Sixth Corps 
now are." 

But on the morning of the 24th there was a better outlook. 




GEN. BIRNEY. 



286 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The Confederates had withdrawn from Hancock's front and 
he crossed the bridge without opposition, taking his designated 
position with his left on the railroad, a half-mile below. 
Burnside could not cross owing to a heavy and advantageously 
posted force on the opposite side. Warren was directed to 
send Crawford's division down the southern side, and Hancock 
a force upward, to drive the enemy from Burnside's front. But 
these two forces could not effect a junction. Lee had assumed 
an exceedingly strong position, shaped like the letter V, with 
one side toward Warren, the other toward Hancock, and the 
apex toward Burnside and the Oxford fording. 

Here another ford was discovered half way between Oxford 
and Jericho called Quarle's. Burnside was ordered to send 
Crittenden's division across it, which was to move down, in 
conjunction with Crawford of the Fifth, and drive back Lee's 
centre. Potter was to co-operate from Hancock's side. They 
found Hill's corps strongly entrenched at the apex of the V, 
and made a terrific assault upon it, but were repulsed with 
heavy loss, Leslie's brigade alone losing six hundred and fifty 
men, killed, wounded or captured. But the Confederates 
declined to pursue. Grant's position was now precarious. He 
could not bring his wings together, and either might be 
attacked. He therefore did not hesitate to throw away the 
results of the passage of the river, thus far, and issued orders 
to withdraw to the north side for a move in another direction. 
Just here, Lee played a poor part in what had hitherto been a 
magnificent game between the ablest generals of the respective 
armies. He had Grant's forces divided and on the hostile side 
of a difficult river. Not only this, but those divided forces 
were about to withdraw, and recross in retreat, the most diffi- 
cult of all war operations, with an unbeaten foe lying behind 
breastworks close in their rear. Could it be ? The withdrawal 
took place, and the recrossing, under the very eyes of Lee and 
his army, and they were not disturbed. The Federal losses 



THE NORTH ANNA. 287 

from the 20th to the 26th were nearly twelve hundred in 
killed, wounded and missing. 

Sheridan new appeared, after an absence of sixteen days, 
during which he had reached the James river, as has been 
seen. His return march was uneventful, and on the 24th of 
May he reported to Meade at Chesterfield, where the railroad 
crosses the North Anna. On the 25th he sent Wilson's divi- 
sion across the river on Warren's right to attract Lee's atten- 
tion while the recrossing took place. The next day, May 
26th, Torbert's and Gregg's divisions, supported by Russell's 
division of the Sixth, were sent down the North Anna to seize 
the crossings of the Pamunkey. By rapidly and skillfully 
executed movements they possessed and covered the principal 
fordings, and made such a demonstration as greatly favored 
the operations of the army. By the morning of the 27th the 
entire army was on the north side of the North Anna and in 
motion toward the new crossings on the Pamunkey, the Sixth 
leading, followed closely by the Fifth, Ninth and Second, in 
order, the whole covered by Wilson's cavalry. The main cross- 
ing selected was at Hanover ferry, close to Hanover town, 
which Sheridan and Russell already occupied. But other 
crossings were used. The distance from Grant's first crossing 
of the North Anna to Hanover ferry is thirty miles by the 
route taken. The distance from Lee's position to Hanover 
town is less than twenty miles. His inner line advantage was 
therefore a great one. He was aware of Grant's movement on 
the 27th, according to his own dispatches. 

By nightfall of the 27th Grant's army, and its train of four 
thousand wagons, were within easy reach of the respective 
crossings of the Pamunkey. By noon of the 28th three corps 
were across, without an action, so perfectly had the preliminary 
operations been conducted. A line was formed a mile and a 
half out from the river, the Sixth holding the right, Hancock 
the centre, Warren's Fifth the left, and Burnside's Ninth, which 



288 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

had been consolidated with the Army of the Potomac and 
placed under Meade on the 24th of May, remaining on the 
north of the river to be near the trains. Thus the Federal 
army a third time executed with complete success one of the 
most difficult operations in war. In sight and within musket 
range of a powerful enemy it recrossed a difficult river in 
retreat, marched for forty hours by night and day, through 
dust and heat, and by unknown and dangerous roads, until it 
struck another stream, where its foe was unprepared, crossed 
without dispute, assumed a new position which compelled its 
adversary to abandon impregnable breastworks and fall back 
in haste to protect his communications and his capital. 

This was strategy of the first order and, mingled as it was 
with dash and persistency, it is calculated to lift Grant's gen- 
eralship to a height unreached by any officer of modern times. 
The base of supplies, hitherto at Port Royal, was now 
ordered to White House on the Pamunkey, whither boats could 
come. White House is twenty-five miles down from Hanover 
town. In front of the army was a curious country, bottom 
lands chiefly, much of them covered with low pines, with 
swamps on either side of the sluggish streams, and especially 
to the south as the Chickahominy is approached. Just south 
of Hanover town is the Totopotomoy region, through which 
that creek winds slowly amid swampy surroundings. 

From Hanover two fair roads run to Richmond, twenty 
miles away. Lee had lost every river barrier, except the 
Chickahominy. The great question with Grant now was 
whether he (Lee) would offer battle between the Pamunkey 
and Chickahominy, or, falling behind the latter, fight only 
within the defences of Richmond. 

A glance at the south side of the James is now in place. 
We know how rapidly Grant has been pushing thither, how he 
has been " fighting it out on this line," how he has been filling 
his part of the contract to keep Lee so busy as to prevent his 






THE NORTH ANNA. 



289 




sending any reinforcements to the army operating against 
Butler. How has Butler been prospering? How filling his 
part of the contract not to let reinforcements get from his front 
to Lee? How sustaining his boast that Grant need not fear 
any aid Beauregard could send to his opponent? How sever- 
ing the railroads south of Richmond and capturing the 
place ? 

Before leaving Fortress Monroe Butler's force was thirty 
thousand strong, composed of two 
corps, Gillmore's Tenth, and W. F. 
Smith's Eighteenth ; the former em- 
bracing Perry's, Ames' and Turner's 
divisions, the latter Weitzel's and 
Brook's divisions and Hink's brigade 
of colored troops. With a feint to 
the north side of the James, it was to 
move to the south side against Rich- 
mond, with a possibility of capturing 
it, for its defences were weakest in 

that direction, with the determination of cutting the railroads 
and holding Petersburg, and above all with the object of so 
engaging Confederate attention in that direction as to prevent 
Lee from receiving support. By and by Grant was to cut his 
way through to the James and unite with Butler, thus invest- 
ing Richmond on its weak and vital side. 

All went well till he (Butler) was established at Bermuda 
Hundred. Here he lost his head. Instead of taking and 
holding Petersburg and controlling the numerous roads centre- 
ing there, he heard of Lee's retreat before Grant, and resolved 
to try for Richmond direct. This brought on the disastrous 
affair of Drury's Bluff by which Beauregard was enabled to 
drive him back to, and shut him up in, Bermuda Hundred for 
the season. This was on May 16th. Thus Richmond was 
entirely relieved, and Lee's army could be reinforced almost 

19 



GEN. B. F. BUTLER. 



29O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

at will. Add to this the advantage received by Sigel's defeat 
in the Shenandoah valley, and one can imagine that Lee's 
heavy losses were being constantly made up to him. Grant 
therefore had to depend on his own genius and determination 
to get through with his herculean task. There was, however, 
a little gleam from the Valley, for Hunter, Sigel's successor, 
had taken the offensive, and pushed as far as Staunton where 
he joined Cr^ok and Averill. The three destroyed many rail- 
roads and an immense amount of supplies, and their diversion 
would have been of great permanent value, but for Hunter's 
long and circuitous march and retreat by way of the Kanawha 
to the upper end of the Valley again, where he found all in 
confusion as before his start. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



COLD HARBOR. 



GRANT was in line south of the Pamunkey, on May 28th, 
and twenty miles from Richmond. He knew that Lee, 
having the inner lines of march on him, could confront him at 
any moment. Was he now to expect battle? Very likely; 
and if so, a severe one ; for Lee could now draw on all his 
resources, and must act under the spur of desperation, for his 
capital was almost within sight. 

The Federals must lose no time. If battle impended, it were 
best to give it before the Confederates could consolidate too 
heavily and entrench too strongly. The natural features of 
the country; the thick, bushy 
woods; the marshes of the Toto- 
potomoy and, beyond, those of the 
Chickahominy, presented obstacles 
sufficiently formidable for the 
Federals to overcome, without the 
addition of long and secret lines of 
fortifications. So Sheridan was 
promptly (May 28th) ordered to 
make a demonstration in the di- 
rection of Hawe's Shop, and on 
toward Mechanicsville, to discover 
Lee's position. From this time 

on it will be noticed how admirably Grant handled the 
cavalry branch of his army, and what effective work it did 
under the intrepid leadership of Sheridan. Near Hawe's the 

291 




GEN. CUSTER. 



292 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Confederate cavalry was encountered, under Hampton, Stuart's 
successor. Gregg's division attacked with vigor, and was 
roughly handled. Davies and Custer came to the rescue, and 
a sanguinary battle ensued, both sides fighting dismounted. 
The battle lasted until dark, and the losses were heavy on 
both sides. The enemy were driven off the field, leaving 
their dead behind. The army was pushed promptly forward 
to hold the conquered ground, which proved to be a valuable 
acquisition, as it controlled the road from Mechanicsville to 
Hanover Court House and Hanover Town. The same 
evening Lee was reported at Atlee's Station, evidently bent 
on keeping Grant north of the Totopotomoy. 

On May 29th, the Sixth moved westward to Hanover Court 
House. No enemy was found. Hancock advanced toward the 
Totopotomoy; Burnside crossed the Pamunkey, and came up 
between the Fifth and Second. The whole front of the army 
had advanced three miles since morning. Lee was in force 
north of the Chickahominy, and covering the two railroads 
and three country roads leading to Richmond. There was to 
be battle, or else bright games of strategy. Already the latter 
had begun. Lee was slipping southeastward toward Cold 
Harbor and in the direction- of the White House, Grant's base 
of supplies. This diversion on his left must be stopped. 
Sheridan was sent with two divisions of his cavalry to watch 
the enemy vigilantly. Grant had ordered to his support all 
the troops that could be spared from the south side of the 
James, and these, under Smith, were expected by way of the 
White House. It was therefore imperative that this point 
should be protected. 

On May 30th, the Federal advance continued, with a slight 
shifting of positions. Lee lay behind the Totopotomoy, his 
lines extending from Atlee's Station, on the Virginia Central, 
well down toward Cold Harbor, which is half way from Rich- 
mond to the Pamunkey, and not far from the Chickahominy. 



COLD HARBOR. 293 

The Sixth swung from Hanover Court House close up to Han- 
cock's right. The two corps then pushed to the Totopotomoy 
creek; Burnside crossed, and Warren moved on the Mechanics- 
ville road. Skirmishing was brisk all day. In the afternoon 
Warren struck Early near Bethesda Church. It was Lee's 
right. Early attacked furiously, in order to turn Warren's left. 
Grant saw it, and ordered Hancock forward as a relief. He 
advanced and carried an important line of rifle pits, which the 
enemy could not recapture. Warren recovered from his first 
staggering blow, made a spirited advance, carried Early's 
position, and drove him back a mile and a half. All the 
manceuvering and fighting of this day may be regarded as pre- 
liminary to the great struggle which both commanders knew 
to be close at hand. Positions w T ere being developed and fronts 
ascertained. It was evident that there was a gradual shifting 
of scenes southeastward — Lee, in order to turn Grant's left and 
endanger his supplies; Grant, in order to circumvent it and 
get nearer to the James, his destination. 

On the same day (May 30th), Halleck was ordered to have 
engineers and bridges sent to Fortress Monroe for use on the 
James ; and on that date Smith arrived at the White House. 
He was ordered to march promptly up the south side of the 
Pamunkey, and join the Army of the Potomac. The Fifth now 
held the left of Grant's army on the Mechanicsville road; the 
Ninth was next; the Second next; the Sixth on the right, six 
miles south of Hanover Court House. Thus Lee's front was 
covered. The two armies fully confronted each other. The 
direction was northwest to southeast, the respective fronts 
extending about nine miles. Each commander was on the 
alert. 

On May 31st, Cold Harbor became a conspicuous objective, 
a pivot of the respective wings of both armies. Sheridan ad- 
vanced upon it with two divisions, and found it strongly defended 
by Confederate cavalry and infantry behind breastworks of logs 



294 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and rails. He attacked, and after a severe fight drove them 
out. But they returned the attack with such vigor as to cause 
him to think it best to retire. Just then word came to him 
from Grant to hold Cold Harbor at all hazards. He imme- 
diately re-entered the contest, fought dismounted, turned the 
enemy's breastworks against them, and by nightfall was in full 
possession of the place again. 

On hearing of this, Grant, who had expected an infantry 
battle for the point, ordered the Sixth from his right to Sher- 
idan's support. Smith, now coming up the Pamunkey, was 
ordered to the same point, and to take position between Warren's 
Fifth and Wright's Sixth, the latter now being on the extreme 
left. The Sixth marched all night. Lee saw the manoeuvre, 
and sent Anderson's corps from his left to his right at Cold 
Harbor. Thus, on the morning of June ist, the two armies 
again confronted each other, and the lines were so close that 
the slightest changes could be detected, and even the giving 
of orders heard. 

At a very early hour (June ist), the Confederates renewed 
their assault on Sheridan in Cold Harbor. They were driven 
back twice, and Sheridan held on. By nine o'clock, Wright's 
Sixth put in an appearance, and Sheridan's conquest was made 
secure. Anderson's corps of Lee's army was now seen sweep- 
ing toward his right, past the front of the Fifth. Warren was 
ordered to set upon its flank. It was regarded as a good op- 
portunity to destroy it. But Warren attacked only with artillery. 
Wright was to meet it in front, by swinging his left round. 
There was a loss of precious time, and the enemy took advan- 
tage of it to fall back and fortify, after withstanding a severe 
fire for a time, and losing a number of prisoners, as soon as 
they saw that Cold Harbor was effectually lost to them. Their 
lines were felt, and found to be strong. Grant was much dis- 
appointed at the results of the day thus far. It was well on in 
the afternoon. He had fully expected to thwart Lee's move- 



296 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ment of Anderson to his right, by having Warren attack it in 
flank, and Wright and Smith in front. But the opportunity 
was lost. Smith was not even up yet, with his ten thousand 
troops. He had marched to New Castle, hugging the river, 
instead of to Cold Harbor. The wrong name had been inserted 
in the order by the dispatching officer. However, he did his 
best to recover lost time, and came upon the scene at three in 
the afternoon, after a rapid and hot march of twenty-five miles. 

Lee had further extended his right by posting Hoke beyond 
Anderson. At five, Grant felt that his left, since the accession 
of Smith, w r as stronger than Lee's right. There was an open 
space in front, and Hoke and Anderson were not closely joined. 
Therefore a hopeful point of attack was presented. Wright's 
and Smith's forces were disposed and ordered to advance. They 
swept the open space in the face of a galling front and enfilading 
fire, and dashed upon both Anderson and Hoke. Wright 
captured the works in his front and five hundred prisoners, and 
sent back word that he hoped to extend his lines to the Chick- 
ahominy. Smith carried the line of rifle pits in his front, and 
captured two hundred and fifty prisoners. But both officers 
were now met by a second line of breastworks, which they 
could not force. 

As a set off to these demonstrations the Confederates had 
made a determined attack on Warren's Fifth, and also on 
Hancock and Burnside. But all these corps held their ground 
solidly and administered terrible punishment to the enemy 
with grape and canister. Lee's efforts to regain the lost ground 
on his right, and if possible turn Grant's left, did not cease at 
nightfall, but were kept up till well toward morning. They 
however amounted to nothing in the way of conquest, and 
that skillful leader w r as forced to face the grim fact that he had 
permanently lost Cold Harbor and valuable ground beside. 
The gain to the Federals was momentous. They had saved 
their left, which Lee would have given half his army to have 



COLD HARBOR. 297 

turned successfully. They had gradually narrowed the enemy's 
fighting ground north of the Chickahominy. They had secured 
the roads leading to the James below Richmond. The losses 
had been heavy, but the advantages far more than compensated 
for them. 

Grant was quick to push his opportunity. That night Han- 
cock was ordered to the left of Wright's Sixth. This would 
stretch the left of the army almost, if not quite, to the Chicka- 
hominy. But the weather was hot, the roads dusty and 
unknown, and the march was confused. Not until daylight 
of June 2d did he reach Cold Harbor, twelve miles from his 
starting point. His men were worn out and rest was necessary. 
Therefore the attack by the left which was projected for the 
early morning was forcibly suspended till the afternoon. This 
continued subtraction of force from the right of the army left 
it at Bethesda Church, which Burnside's Ninth held. It was 
marching southward by the curious and tedious process of 
swinging an extreme right wing continually to the extreme 
left. The fighting too was almost continuous, for the Confed- 
erates were always trying Grant's front to find out what he 
was doing. To be sure they tried cautiously, and never very 
effectively, yet often insignificant skirmishes rose to the dignity 
of sharp battles between opposing brigades and divisions. All 
in all it was simply wonderful how Lee adhered to his system 
of fighting only under cover and retaining a shrewd and stub- 
born defensive. In this generalship he was so persistent as to 
lose many brilliant opportunities, and it was to overcome this 
that Grant was compelled to resort to that splendid series of 
movements by his respective flanks which have no parallel in 
military history and by means of which he was constantly 
nearing his destination and effecting his daring purposes. 

On June 2d Wilson returned to Grant's right from an expe- 
dition to destroy the Virginia Central as far as Hanover Court 
House, and thus to prevent any accession of strength to Lee 



290 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

from the Valley. Sheridan was well to the left, covering all 
approaches to the White House, and seizing and holding the 
crossings of the lower Chickahominy. Lee detected again 
Grant's movement to the left, and again he shifted to counteract 
it. Breckinridge's command, which had some time before re- 
inforced him from the west, was thrown to his right, with parts 
of Hill's corps. Hoke and Anderson held his centre, and Early 
and Heth his left. His lines reached six miles from the Totopot- 
omoy to New Cold Harbor, a mile and a half nearer Richmond 
than Old Cold Harbor, or Cold Harbor proper. Grant's lines 
were a little longer, reaching from Bethesda Church where 
Burnside lay, through Warren's, Smith's and Wright's com- 
mands respectively, to the left at and below Old Cold Harbor 
held by Hancock. Hunter was approaching Staunton in the 
Valley, and his condition had to be looked to before Grant 
could make another swing to the left and leave all northern 
and inland communications behind. 

Grant's left was now on the ground which McClellan had 
made historic in 1862 during the Peninsular campaign. There 
was Gaine's Mill, with the entrenchments behind which the 
Federals had fought, in numbers greater than those which 
Grant now commanded, Lee then being the attacking party. 
Now Lee was on the defensive there and behind even stronger 
entrenchments, from which he dare not sally to assume the 
aggressive. Armies and commanders were not the same as 
before, at least not in spirit. 

As Lee's right approached the Chickahominy it gained the 
protection afforded by the thickets and marshes of that stream. 
There was therefore almost an end to further hope of turning 
it. But Grant was not dissuaded from a blow by this consid- 
eration. Though the attack designed for the afternoon of June 
2d, which it was hoped Hancock would be sufficiently rested 
to make, was postponed, one of a more general and formidable 
character was projected for the next day, June 3d. 



COLD HARBOR. 



299 



Hancock was to move in the early morning. Barlow and 
Gibbon were pushed forward through the mists and swamps, 
supported by Birney. The enemy's fire was terrific, the jungle 
thick, the marshes deep. Still the Federals pushed on 
undauntedly. Barlow struck the Confederates in a hollow 
road and drove them out. Pursuing them into their entrench- 
ments he captured several hundred prisoners and three pieces 
of artillery. But his success was short-lived. He was not 
supported by a second line with sufficient promptitude. The 
Confederates rallied, raked the entrenchments with an enfil- 
ading fire and drove Barlow out, but only back to a friendly 
knoll close by, which he entrenched and held. Gibbon, on 
Barlow's right was equally successful at first in gaining the 
enemy's breastworks, but met with a similar fate in the end. 
Wright's Sixth moved simulta- 
neously with Hancock. His 
charge was gallant and deter- 
mined. He cleared the enemy's 
rifle pits, but could make no 
impression on the principal 
works. Smith had an open 
front. He pushed Martindale 
and Brooks upon the enemy 
with great bravery, but lost his 
connection with the Sixth and 
had to re-establish it. His men 
suffered terribly during the first 
assault. But they were re- 
formed, the lost connection with the Sixth was made, and a 
second assault attempted. The fire was enfilading, destructive, 
and could not be silenced. By eleven o'clock he announced to 
Meade that his last four regiments were in line, but he dared not 
order them to attack till supported by Warren on their right. 
Warren had not attacked vigorously owing to the length of his 




GENERAL WRIGHT. 



300 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

lines. Burnside was to support him, but he had pushed further 
to the right, not without advantage, however, for both Griffin 
of the Fifth and Wilcox of the Ninth, had struck a strongly 
fortified enemy in that direction. 

While these assaults were extending from left to right, they 
were being repeated again on the left. The investment of the 
enemy's lines was close in the extreme, and the tenacity with 
which he clung to his cover was something marvelous. Not 
even the inducement to pursue and capture the columns which 
battered in vain against his breastworks, and retired broken 
into shreds, could bring him from behind his barriers. But 
while flashes of battle broke out here and there along those 
close lines, there was no other general assault on June 3d. At 
noon Grant took a view of the situation, heard the opinions of 
all the corps commanders, and made up his mind what to do. 
It was evident that the enemy's lines could not be broken, 
unless better opportunity offered. If such existed, the Fed- 
eral army was in a condition to find it. Its position was not 
dangerous, for Lee would not attack. As long as Lee's fortifi- 
cations were hugged so tightly, he could not withdraw with 
safety. And then — singular determination — Lee was far more 
harmless, hampered and tied up where he was, than if behind 
the fortifications of Richmond. This pre-eminently wise con- 
clusion was not reached by simple study of the local situation, 
but after consulting the entire field of operations. Grant had 
to look to every point of responsibility, to widely distant fields, 
to other generals, armies, and projects than those under his 
immediate eye. He had to think for those in remote sections, 
and plan incessantly that a common success might ensue. He 
would therefore hold Lee there for the time being, watch 
vigilantly, and attack at any and every opportunity. "It is 
necessary to keep him here till Hunter can reach Lynchburg 
from Staunton." Halleck had proposed to reinforce him by 
sending him the Nineteenth Corps. He refused it, and said 



COLD HARBOR. 30I 

that if there were any spare troops in the west they should 
be organized and sent against Mobile. He sent plans, how- 
ever, for organizing the Sixteenth Corps in West Tennessee, 
and directed the repairs of the railroad from the White House 
to his army. 

All the corps commanders were ordered to entrench and 
hold their fronts. Firing continued all day, sometimes fiercely, 
then dying away to desultory volleys of musketry. Once dur- 
ing the afternoon, a severe battle was on along Burnside's 
front, during which he punished the enemy severely, causing 
him to retreat, leaving his dead on the field. The losses of the 
day were heavy on the Federal side. Officers and men fought 
with reckless daring, and the mortality among the former was 
very marked. The total losses to the Federals, killed, wounded 
and missing, on June 3d, were seven thousand, and the losses 
since crossing the Pamunkey footed up ten thousand. Those 
of the Confederates were less, since they fought only on the 
defensive and under cover. They probably did not exceed 
three thousand on June 3d, and five thousand since the crossing 
of the Pumunkey. Grant himself reported " his own loss as 
heavy, that of the enemy light, as I think. It was the only 
attack made, from the Rapidan to the James, which did not 
inflict upon the enemy losses to compensate for our own." 

General Grant has been censured for this battle But he 
knew the situation better than any one else. Eveiy defensive 
position Lee took was a challenge. Grant accepted, tried the 
fortunes of war ; if not able to conquer, tried the power of 
strategy. Lee was now at the Chickahominy, his last natural 
defence, the watery ditch which protected Richmond on the 
north. If crushed here, he might be followed, and in the 
rout, his capital taken. If avoided by a further flank move- 
ment — and the next movement of that kind was to find Grant 
on the south side of the James, as he hoped — then the army 
was in for a siege of Richmond. Grant never entered upon a 



302 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

siege till he had tried the strength of his enemy thoroughly. 
To have refused battle at Cold Harbor would have been to 
open a storm of criticism by the same authors, and in quite as 
violent a vein, as that which befell his positive and heroic action. 
He was repulsed, but not defeated. His repulses he turned to 
practical account. He knew better what to do after than 
before. The moral, the intellectual results of Cold Harbor, 
were all for his advantage, that of his army, and the countiy. 
We have seen how they concerned Hunter, and the armies in 
other fields. Grant's eye was not local; his judgments were 
for the general situation, not for a speck on the map, not for a 
petty victory. He was commander of all the Federal forces, 
and in fighting, holding, and playing his game with Lee, was 
fighting equally for his other generals and their commands. 
Lee never sent reinforcements to help crush other Federal 
generals. It was Grant's design that he (Lee) should never 
receive any from in front of any Federal general. Therefore, 
his (Grant's) persistency, his hardihood, his constancy. He 
remitted nothing his judgment sanctioned. That his judg- 
ment was best, let the end bear witness. It was best because 
his attacks on Lee and the constant uncovering of his strength 
and plans made it so. 






CHAPTER XVII. 

OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 

AFTER Cold Harbor, June 3d, 1864, there was respite from 
hard fighting, but no relaxation of vigilance by either 
foe. They were as if locked together in tight embrace. Lee 
could not be driven, Grant would not be. It was a time for 
thought and strategy. On June 5th Birney was returned to 
the Second Corps and extended its left till it reached the 
Chickahominy, where the pickets on either side, notwith- 
standing the fact that they had so long and often engaged in 
bloody strife, frequently exchanged salutations and not infre- 
quently tobacco, drugs and relishes. 

On the 7th, Griffin's and Cutler's divisions extended this left 
from the Chickahominy to Dispatch Station on the Richmond 
and York River railroad. Thus Grant was gradually moving 
by side marches in accordance with his original design to 
throw himself south of the James, and cut the Confederate 
capital off from all communication with the Confederacy. 
Would not this open Washington to attack by Lee? Not 
if Richmond were as dear to the Confederates as Washington 
was to the Federals. Grant was at the door of Richmond. 
He could capture, if Lee diverted any of his strength else- 
where, and then he could pursue faster than Lee could advance 
back through the fastnesses of that region which both armies 
had just traversed. Washington contained a protecting force, 
and possibly an impeding force if thrown out to the line of the 
Rappahannock and Rapidan. "Vicksburg is vulnerable only 
from the south " had been Grant's firm conclusion after long 

303 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 305 

deliberation and repeated trial. "There," said he before the 
Wilderness, " there," placing his finger on the map where 
Petersburg is located, " is the vital point of the Confederacy. 
Richmond will fall when we are there." Petersburg was a 
congeries of railroads. The life of the Confederacy, its com- 
merce, its resource, flowed out and in through this centre. 

On the 6th Lee felt the Federal right with Early's corps. 
He moved on the north side of the Matadequin, but got 
entangled in the swamps. On the 7th he repeated the move- 
ment south of the Matadequin, but failed, for the same reason. 
These were his only attempts to disturb Grant. A proposition 
now came from Halleck to invest Richmond on the north, in 
order to keep Washington secure. Grant's statement of the 
situation runs thus: "I was (after June 3d) still in a position 
to move by his (Lee's) left flank and invest Richmond from 
the North side, or continue my move by his right flank to 
the south side of the James. While the former might have 
been better as a covering for Washington, yet a full survey of 
all the ground satisfied me that it would be impracticable to 
hold a line north and east of Richmond that would protect 
the Fredericksburg railroad — a long vulnerable line that 
would exhaust much of our strength to guard, and that would 
have to be protected to supply the army, and would leave 
open to the enemy all his lines of communication on the south 
side of the James. My idea from the start had been to beat Lee's 
army north of Richmond if possible. Then after destroying his 
lines of communication Jiorth of the James, to transfer the army 
to the south side and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him south 
if he should retreat. After the battle of the Wilderness, it was 
evident that the enemy deemed it of the first importance to 
run no risks with the army he then had. He acted purely on 
the defensive behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive 
immediately in front of them; and when, in case of repulse, he 
could easily retire to them. Without a greater sacrifice of life 



306 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



than I was willing to make, all could not be accomplished that 
I had designed north of Richmond. I therefore determined 
to continue to hold substantially the ground we then occupied, 
taking advantage of any favorable circumstances that might 
present themselves, until cavalry could be sent to Charlotte- 
ville and Gordonville to effectually break up the railroad con- 
nection between Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley and Lynch- 
burg; and when the cavalry got well off, to move the army to 
the south side of the James by the enemy's right flank, when 
I felt I could cut off his source of supplies except by canal." 
And these delicate cavalry operations were now under way. 
On June 5th Sheridan had orders to move to Charlotteville — 
he started on the 7th — to destroy the bridge there, and return- 
ing to Hanover Junction, to destroy the line of the Central 
railroad. Hunter was to meet him there. But Hunter, who 
had met Jones' Cavalry at Piedmont and defeated him, formed 
a junction with Crook and Averill (June 8th) at Staunton and 
the three were moving in the direction of Lexington and 
Lynchburg. Lee ordered Hampton to pursue Sheridan, sent 
Breckenridge into the now open Valley, and on the 12th dis- 
patched Early, to follow, the two to 
join at Harper's Ferry and make a 
demonstration on Washington. This 
was designed to recall the Federal 
movement against Lynchburg. 

From the 9th to the 1 ith the Fed- 
erals were busy building entrench- 
ments back of their position near 
Cold Harbor, to be held while the 
army was withdrawing from Lee's 
front. Butler was ordered to send a 
strong cavalry force under Gillmore 
and Kautz to break up the railroads around Petersburg and 
capture the place if possible. He made a determined attack, 




GEN. BRECKINRIDGE. 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 307 

but failed to accomplish his object. That part of Smith's 
command which had been left at the White House was sent 
back again to Butler to co-operate with the cavalry move on 
Petersburg. Grant regarded the capture of this place as of 
great importance and lost no opportunity to consummate it. 

Matters were now rapidly shaping for the daring and final 
swing of the army to the south of the James. The right had 
been gradually and quietly shifted to the left, till the lower 
crossings of the Chickahominy were under control. These, 
however, were not the only things to be considered. The 
James was beyond. Crossing of the one stream involved the 
crossing of the other. The point selected for the James was 
Wilcox's Landing, amply protected, except to the rearward, 
where engineers had been for some time looking out for good 
covering positions. Steamers, boats of various kinds, and pon- 
toons had come up from Fortress Monroe, or would be up in 
time. To cross so large an army with all its artillery, ammu^ 
nition, subsistence, hospital trains, and paraphernalia, over a 
wide, deep river, and with an enemy within striking distance, 
was a difficult and daring undertaking. 

The crossings of the Chickahominy below Lee's position 
were Bottom Bridge, eight miles from Cold Harbor ; Long 
Bridge, fifteen miles ; Jones' Bridge, twenty miles, and Windsor 
Shades, twenty-four miles. The bridges at all these crossings 
were destroyed. The river is deep, sluggish, oozy, swampy. 
Two miles below Bottom Bridge, the White Oak Swamp enters 
the Chickahominy on the south. It, too, is a winding, sleepy, 
swampy stream, difficult to cross. To cross at Bottom Bridge 
would, therefore, necessitate a crossing of White Oak Swamp. 
Beside, it was too near to Lee for safety. Long Bridge was 
the first available crossing. Here Warren and Hancock should 
cross. Wright and Burnside should cross at Jones' Bridge. 
The trains, moving from White House, should cross at Wind- 
sor Shades, and still lower, at Coles' Ferry. Smith was to 



308 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

make all haste to the White House, and thence by transport 
to Bermuda Hundred to report to Butler. 

Wilson's cavalry was to precede Warren. Secrecy and 
dispatch were grave essentials, both to save attack on Grant's 
rear, and to secure a strong situation on the south side, with a 
sufficient force to cover all operations. By the night of June 
1 2th, everything was in readiness to push forward in quest of 
new fields and a better fortune than had lately cheered the 
sorely tried veterans. A body of cavalry, dismounted, strug- 
gled through the swamps, and crossed the deep, oozy waters, 
as best they could, driving the Confederate guard before them. 
The Fifth Corps pontoon was quickly laid, and soon Chap- 
man's brigade of cavalry was across. It dashed out toward 
Riddle's Shop, in the direction of Richmond, an important 
cross road point which Warren was to occupy, so that Lee 
might think Grant's object was to move on Richmond, between 
the Chickahominy and James. The cavalry met with stout 
opposition, but succeeded in securing Riddle's Shop and White 
Oak Bridge. 

Warren's Fifth followed closely, and part of it relieved the 
cavalry, while the rest remained to cover the crossing. Burn- 
side pushed for Jones' Bridge and got safely across. Hancock 
and Wright were left to the last to hold the Federal front 
Hancock now followed Warren, and, when across, deflected 
to the left in the direction af Wilcox's Landing on the James. 
Wright followed Burnside. By morning of the 1 3th, Grant was 
south of the Chickahominy, and Lee faced an empty line of 
entrenchments. Then came hard, exhaustive marches for the 
Federals, in the direction of Wilcox's and Charles City. Han- 
cock reached the vicinity by five, on the afternoon of the 13th, 
after a march of twenty-five miles. The Sixth and Ninth came 
in on the 14th, after a march of thirty miles. The Fifth fell 
back from Riddle's on the night of the 13th, and came up with 
the main body on the 14th. So successful had Warren, in 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 3O9 

connection with the cavalry, been in deceiving the enemy into 
the belief that a movement on Richmond was intended from 
the south side of the Chickahominy, that Lee was in the dark 
as to the real objective of the Federal army up till the 17th of 
June. 

By midnight of the 14th, the bridge across the James was 
laid and the approaches were ready. The artillery of the Ninth, 
Fifth and Sixth Corps was crossed first, and in the order named. 
Grant now left everything to Meade, and took a steamer for 
Bermuda Hundred to consult with Butler. Smith was already 
there with his force from the White House. He was ordered 
at once to march for Petersburg, and invest and attack. He 
was off on the 15th with all the force he could gather, and by 
evening was ready to attack. It was Grant's hope to capture 
it before Lee could avail himself of his short line and reach it 
for defence. At 7 o'clock in the evening, Smith's lines moved 
in resolute, impetuous attack, carrying everything before them, 
capturing two and a half miles of rifle pits, fifteen pieces of 
artillery, and three hundred prisoners. Lee was not yet up. 
The Confederate troops in Petersburg were not used to severe 
attack or a sustained fire. The night was moonlight and favor- 
able for continued operations. There were no inner lines of 
defence. Notwithstanding this, Smith halted to reform his 
troops and wait till morning. At midnight Hancock reached 
him with two divisions, which he offered to him. Instead of 
using them to push his way into Petersburg, he manned his 
trenches with them. That night Lee's advance reached the 
city, though he had not yet fully made out Grant's intentions, 
nor thrown his main army across the James. Fortifications 
went rapidly up. By morning there were strong inner lines, 
bristling with bayonets and mounted with guns. Smith had 
lost a grand opportunity, one for which Grant had longed, and 
of which he at last felt sure. He had gone down the river 
to Wilcox's on the 15th, but on the 16th returned to Smith, to 



310 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

see him confronted with invincible works, and to feel that 
nothing could be done for the time being. Great was his mor- 
tification to witness a loss which an hour of prompt work could 
have saved, but which now months could not retrieve. He 
had actually won, moving in a circle of miles, against Lee 
moving on a radius, but the crowning movement had slipped 
through failure of a trusted officer to realize its importance. 

But to go back a step. When Lee discovered that Grant 
was no longer before him, but across the Chickahominy, he 
too threw his army across, and by the 14th it was stretched 
from White Oak Swamp to Malvern Hill on the James, ready 
to confront Grant on his expected march upon Richmond. 
Grant's cavalry kept up an active series of operations on this 
front to further the supposition that a genuine movement was 
intended in this direction. Meanwhile the Federal army was 
crossing the James down at Wilcox's Landing. By means of 
boats and other appliances, Hancock had gotten across by the 
morning of the 15th, and was under orders to march to 
Petersburg. The other corps used the pontoon bridge mainly, 
a marvel of its kind, laid down by Major Duane. The cross- 
ing of the respective corps occupied most of the 15th and 
1 6th. Every corps arrived on the south side of the James 
safely and under orders, Hancock, as we have seen, went 
immediately to Petersburg, and two divisions arrived in time 
to assist Smith on the night of the 15th, if he had used them. 
Wright's corps was divided, and part sent to Butler at Ber- 
muda Hundred. Warren and Burnside were to march toward 
Petersburg, the former directly to the aid of Hancock and 
Smith. 

Both armies were now very active, and a series of important 
movements were in operation. Beauregard knew the weakness 
of Petersburg, and had become convinced that Grant was about 
to move upon it from the south side of the James. He appealed 
to Lee for aid, but that officer sent only Hoke's command. He 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 3II 

refused to send more, saying he could not spare more from 
the north of the James till he knew of Grant's whereabouts 
and intentions. It was enough, however, and its arrival was 
timely, as has been seen. By the evening of the 16th, Burn- 
side was at Petersburg. Grant determined to try another 
attack. It began in the evening and was continued with vary- 
ing success till six the next morning. Several of the enemy's 
redoubts were captured, with many pieces of artillery, and four 
hundred prisoners. On the 17th, Warren's Fifth came up. 
The fighting was renewed, and continued that day and the 
next, without appreciable results, save as the enemy was forced 
to contract his lines. 

All this time Beauregard was receiving reinforcements from 
other points. Johnston had been drawn in from in front of 
Butler at Bermuda Hundred, and Butler had been ordered to 
advance. But Johnston quickly returned, and after a severe 
engagement retook his old lines. Lee, too, having now made 
out Grant's designs, was pushing his best troops into Peters- 
burg. It was, even under attack, fast becoming a formidable 
place, and it certainly rose to a mighty height of importance 
as the full purport of Grant's magnificent strategy dawned on 
the Confederate mind. It was close to and right under Rich- 
mond, entrepot for the capital on the south, centre of a line 
stretching along the Appomattox which would be to Richmond 
what the Chickahominy, the Pamunkey, and the Rappahannock 
had for four years been on the north. 

By the 18th of June, Lee's forces were well on the south 
side of the James, along the railroad to Petersburg, and within 
the fortifications of that place. Yet on that day the Federal 
army made the most determined of its series of assaults, and 
forced itself close against the enemy's lines. Birney, in tem- 
porary command of the Second Corps, General Hancock being 
disabled by the opening of an old wound, made two splendid 
attacks to the right of the Prince George Court House road, 



312 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

but was repulsed with severe loss. Burnside attacked a strong 
position in the railroad cut, and drove the enemy out with heavy 
losses. Warren's assault was gallantly made, and many of his 
men reached the enemy's works. All the other troops that 
participated fought with a desperation which was unchecked by 
danger and repulse. 

At the close of this day, General Grant expressed himself 
as perfectly satisfied that all had been done that could be done 
toward capturing the place by direct assault. His troops had 
been constantly on the alert for days before crossing the 
Chickahominy and James, they had marched over long dis- 
tances by day and night, and now for three days had been 
engaged in terrific clash with a strongly entrenched enemy. 
There had been a large mortality among officers, who literally 
led their men into action. The commands were reduced and 
in need of recruitment or reorganization. Rest was imperative 
for all. Therefore orders came to fortify and cover the lines 
as they existed. These became the historic lines around Peters- 
burg. They remained substantially the same throughout the 
subsequent months of the war. Their elaboration for purposes 
of siege resulted in that stupendous system of works and 
wonderful plan of environment which came to rank as a mon- 
ument to modern engineering skill and to the industry, patience 
and sacrificial spirit of an American soldiery. 

The vantage ground which Grant had hoped to secure by 
brilliant manoeuvre, judicious combination and rapid marching 
was not in his grasp. But he was around and upon it. It 
was not his nature to brood over failure. Exigency quick- 
ened his energies and stirred his inexhaustible fountains of 
resource. He lost not a moment in parleying with fate, but 
sought means to achieve the end he had started to reach by 
new application of the powers at his command. There were 
yet victories to win, triumphs of an order differing in some 
respects from those he had formerly shaped, yet involving the 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 3I3 

same bravery of action, heroic endurance, certainty of combina- 
tion, originality of design. 

His attempts on Petersburg led to the assurance that Lee's 
army was now with Beauregard, and that they would hold the 
place as the key to Richmond. Thus there was coincidence 
of views between the two commanders and their armies as to 
its strategic worth. This information was momentous. It 
centred effort on a single point or line. It simplified situa- 
tions. It retained Lee on a new front, which relieved the 
country of a pervading fear that as soon as Grant uncovered 
Washington, Lee would march directly upon it. It is hardly 
possible to overrate that military prescience which grasped 
this delicate problem from the beginning. To say that Grant 
could not foreknow what Lee's tactics would be is not to 
discredit him. He did not know, did not need to know; what 
he did know was that Lee should not be master of his own 
independent tactics for a single hour after the two armies were 
brought together south of the Rapidan. And it was so. And 
never was the sublime assurance of his ability to control Lee's 
operations against Washington more fully illustrated than in 
an anecdote then current. Grant was remonstrated with by a 
prominent officer for putting himself in a position which per- 
mitted an enemy to take advantage of his rear. After appar- 
ently serious study for a moment he said, " Well, wont I then 
be in Lee's rear?" 

The Federal losses had been heavy in these assaults on 
Petersburg. The number of killed footed up 1298; wounded, 
7474; missing, 18 14. There are no official statements of Lee's 
losses, but they were severe. The entire losses to Grant's 
army up to this time are thus stated in " Humphrey's Virginia 
Campaign of 1864-65." "May 4th to June 19th, including 
the Eighteenth Corps at Cold Harbor and Petersburg, killed, 
8802; wounded, 40,518 ; missing, 9544; total, 58,864." Of the 
Confederate losses he says, "It was evidently their policy not 



3 14 L*FE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to make them public. The few official data to be got concern- 
ing them do not afford the means of making comparative 
statements." Of those wounded on the Federal side, Dana 
estimates that twenty-five thousand returned to the army, 
leaving the actual loss thirty-three thousand, eight hundred 
and sixty-four. It is perfectly fair to assume that the Confed- 
erate losses in the Wilderness were equal to the Federal, and 
that in all subsequent engagements, up to this time, they were 
less, though relatively large. It is hard to determine this 
relation, but from the precision and general character of 
Grant's attacks there is no good reason to change the rule 
that an enemy's losses fighting behind field breastworks equal 
one-half of those suffered by the attacking party. The Con- 
federate losses thus far would therefore aggregate something 
like thirty-five thousand ; or twenty thousand to twenty-five 
thousand, supposing that a full proportion of their wounded 
returned to the ranks. 

Lee's losses had been very nearly made up to him by rein- 
forcements, and recruitments, and now that he was back amid 
the important garrisons of his capital and surroundings, he 
was stronger than when he started from the Rapidan. Grant's 
army had not been recruited in proportion to its losses, but 
now that it was with that of Butler, it was perhaps numeri- 
cally stronger than when it crossed the Rapidan. Relatively, 
therefore, the strength of the respective foes was as before. 
The Confederates had their old advantage of inner lines, they 
were at home, so to speak, and their fortifications were more 
permanent and highly defensive than ever before. The Fed- 
erals could operate with greater certainty, for the ground was 
not so cumbered with forests, but was still difficult on account 
of its irregularities. They had a short supply line and full 
control of the James below City Point. 

Under these circumstances Grant was again to join issue 
with Lee, the strife not being so much for Richmond as for 



OVER THE JAMES TO PETERSBURG. 315 

Petersburg, which controlled Richmond, for the communica- 
tions with the south and west without which Lee could not 
hope to support his army for a month or even a week, in a 
word, for Lee's army. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



BY June 20th, the army around Petersburg had made its 
position secure. On that night Butler was ordered to 
throw a pontoon across the James, so that a crossing might be 
made to Deep Bottom, into which a strong brigade was thrown. 
The base of supplies came to City Point, whence a railroad ran 
to Petersburg. Grant's lines now extended from Deep Bottom, 
north of the James, to the Appomattox. His forces were well 
in hand for future operations. It is twenty miles from Rich- 
mond, due south to Petersburg. They are connected by rail- 
way. South-west from Richmond runs the Richmond and 
Danville railway. Out of Petersburg runs the Petersburg and 
Norfolk railway, southeasterly, the Weldon railroad, southerly, 
and the Southside railroad, southwesterly. To gain all these 
was to gain Petersburg, at least make its investment com- 
plete. To prevent their capture was the supreme object of the 
enemy. 

Grant's operations involved both his cavalry and infantry. 
The latter were hard at work building entrenchments, erecting 
forts, digging mines, and pushing secret approaches, toward 
the strong works of the enemy which encircled the city. By 
means of them the lines of investment were pushed southerly 
and westerly with the hope of capturing the Weldon railroad, 
the Petersburg and Norfolk railroad having already passed 
into Federal hands. Perhaps no works in any age of warfare 
ever assumed the proportions of these. They were not only 
elaborate and strong in themselves, but their fronts were abat- 
316 



3l8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

tised and interlaced so that a small force could hold them, 
should the larger part be required for other operations. 

While these operations were going on, Grant dispatched 
Wilson, with all the cavalry at command, to cut the Southside, 
and then the Richmond and Danville railroad. Joined by 
Kautz's division of Butler's army, he crossed the Weldon road 
at Ream's Station, and destroyed it. He then struck the South- 
side road, fifteen miles west of Petersburg, which he destroyed 
for miles. At Notaway Court House he encountered a division 
of Confederate cavalry, and entered on a severe, but victorious 
engagement. He followed the road and carried his work of 
destruction to Burkesville junction. Taking the Danville road 
he did the same as far as Roanoke crossing, where he met a 
force of Confederate infantry. Returning, he pushed rapidly 
for the south side of Petersburg, but met, at the crossing of 
Stony Creek, Hampton's cavalry in force. This was unex- 
pected, for it was known that Hampton had been sent after 
Sheridan, on the north of the James, and his return had not 
been announced. A bloody engagement ensued, which lasted 
from late in the afternoon till daylight the next day. Wilson 
found he could not force the crossing, so made a detour and 
came to the Weldon road at Ream's Station, where to his 
surprise he found a strong force of Confederate infantry. 
Before he could turn he was attacked with great fury, and lost 
part of his artillery at the crossing of Hatcher's Run. Kautz 
made his way through a wood and succeeded in reaching the 
army that night. Wilson made a wide circuit, and came in on 
July 2d, after a march of three hundred miles in ten and a half 
days. 

We have seen that Sheridan was sent north and west before 
Grant moved from Cold Harbor (June 7th). What had he 
been doing? On the 10th he crossed the North Anna at 
Carpenter's Ford. Here he learned that Breckinridge, who 
had been detached from Lee's army to take advantage of 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



3*9 



Hunter's absence from the Shenandoah Valley, was moving up 
the railroad toward Gordonville, and that Hampton and Fitz- 
hugh Lee were near Louisa Court House. On the nth, he 
sent Custer to Trevylian Station, on the railroad. Torbert's 
division struck Hampton about three miles away, and before 
he could join with Fitzhugh Lee. Torbert attacked Hampton 
in a dense woods, and drove him back in confusion on Custer, 
who received him with a hot fire, capturing many of his men. 
Gregg attacked Fitzhugh Lee, 
drove him through Louisa Court 
House, and pursued him till 
nightfall. Both Hampton and 
Lee now made their way to Gor- 
donville by round-about marches. 
Sheridan now learned that 
Hunter, whom he expected to 
meet at Charlotteville, was beyond 
Staunton, and moving toward 
Lynchburg. He was also in- 
formed that Lee was moving an 
infantry force in that direction. 
He therefore determined to return to the army, tearing up the 
railroads on his way. On the 1 2th, he recrossed the North Anna. 
On the 2 1st, he reached the White House, and a source of 
much needed ammunition and supplies, followed by Hampton. 
On the 22d, the last of Grant's wagon trains left the White 
House, under Sheridan's escort. The route lay across the 
Chickahominy at Jones' Bridge, and thence to Malvern Hill, 
with the intention of crossing the James to Bermuda Hundred. 
Hampton and Lee both turned up at Malvern Hill. Gregg 
fortified at St. Mary's Church, and was there attacked by both 
Hampton and Lee, on his flanks. The fight was a stubborn 
one, lasting till night. Gregg was forced to give way, and 
retreated, pursued by the enemy, to Charles City Court House. 




GEN 



320 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The trains were turned to Douthard's Landing, where they 
were ferried over the James. On June 26th, Meade directed 
Sheridan to take position on his left, along the line of the Jeru- 
salem plank road, which runs south between the Petersburg and 
Norfolk and Weldon railroads. As soon as Hampton and Lee 
found that Sheridan was safely south of the James, they pushed 
on their short line to Petersburg, and were thus enabled to cut 
off Wilson on his return, as already seen. 

Notwithstanding these efforts to cut off the enemy's supplies, 
they still remained sufficient for their wants, though it cost 
them much time and trouble to make repairs. The weather 
was now exceedingly hot, and much sickness prevailed in the 
army. Energetic work, or any movement of troops, caused 
severe suffering. The earth was parched and dusty. Springs 
and surface waters were dry. Fortunately the strata underneath 
were such that quite shallow wells gave an artificial supply of 
very pure water. 

On the 1st of July, the general position of the Federal army 
before Petersburg was the line already mentioned, stretching 
from Bermuda Hundred to the east and south of the town as 
far as the Jerusalem plank road. This was now a succession 
of fortifications, getting stronger as the town was approached 
and encircled. To make them stronger, to mount them more 
heavily, to push them closer, and especially to drive them 
westward to the Weldon railroad, which the Confederates 
were holding with grim determination, occupied the most of 
the month of July. 

In the meantime, the North was receiving a scare. We have 
seen both Breckinridge and Early detached from Lee's army 
to operate against Hunter, and, if possible, make a diversion 
upon Washington. Lynchburg being a valuable point, and 
Hunter having gone toward it, Early made it his objective. 
When Breckinridge arrived at Gordonville, and learned of 
Hunter's destination, he, too, proceeded thither. This threw 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 321 

Hunter westward, and he made his celebrated, but seemingly 
useless, retreat back to the valley by way of the Kanawha 
river and Baltimore and Ohio railroad. This left the Shenan- 
doah Valley practically open. Early moved down it toward 
Shepherdstown, meeting with no opposition, except such as 
Sigel offered with a small command. He crossed the Potomac, 
delayed somewhat at Hagerstown and Frederick (July 6th-8th), 
and then turned to cross the Monocacy. 

This move carried consternation with it. It is hardly pos- 
sible that Lee thought it would eventuate in the capture of 
Washington. Yet it might answer the purpose of subtracting 
some strength from Grant, and further in redeeming for a time 
at least, the rich feeding ground of the Shenandoah Valley, 
which became more vital to him the more his other Richmond 
communications were threatened. As was expected, the 
authorities at Washington called loudly on Grant for help, 
which he was now fortunately able to send promptly. Rick- 
etts' division of the Sixth Corps was sent direct, by water, to 
Baltimore. Wright himself, with two other divisions, was sent 
by transports to Washington. The Nineteenth, then arriving 
at Fortress Monroe from the West, was also ordered to Wash- 
ington. 

Wallace, in command of the Department of Maryland, had 
a motley army made up of hastily gathered garrisons and 
emergency men, all unused to discipline and fighting. He 
formed on the Monocacy, four miles south of Frederick, to 
resist Early. Fortunately, Ricketts got from Baltimore with 
his division, in time to make the opposition of some account. 
On the 9th, Early attacked, and was gallantly but ineffectually 
resisted by Ricketts, who fell wounded. The entire Federal 
force was driven back upon Baltimore. 

Early now turned toward Washington, and arrived at a point 
north of the city, on July nth. Wright was up with his two 
divisions, Getty's and Russell's, in time, and with full authority 



322 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to act. He threw them between Early and the city. On the 
morning of the 1 2th, Early was ready to attack, but a recon- 
noisance by Wright brought on an engagement, which resulted 
in driving the Confederates back a mile, with a loss of some 
three or four hundred men. Early retreated to the Potomac, 
and recrossed at Edwards' Ferry. As soon as Grant heard of 
the safety of Washington, he ordered Wright to take command 
of all the troops about Washington, and to " get outside of the 
trenches with all the force he could, and push Early to the last 
moment." Early was pushed rapidly south. Then, when it 
was thought that his destination might be Richmond or Lynch- 
burg, Wright was recalled and ordered to reinforce Grant, 
before Early could reinforce Lee. But Early turned toward 
the Potomac again, and Wright was compelled to stay in the 
Valley to guard the Potomac. 

The Valley was now a source of terrible annoyance to Grant. 
Though Averill had (July 18th) captured four hundred Con- 
federates and four field pieces at Winchester, McCausland had 
crossed the Potomac and burned Chambersburg (July 30th). 
There were too many departments, and confusion was rife. 
Telegraphic orders got mixed. There was no possibility of 
securing concerted action. Therefore, on August 2d, Grant 
sent Sheridan to Washington to take general command, and 
in a few days went himself. He proceeded at once to the 
Monocacy, where he met Hunter, now back from his long West 
Virginia retreat. After getting an understanding of the situa- 
tion from him, he issued a ringing order to distribute his troops 
so as to clear the Valley of all intruders, infantry or cavalry. 
He proceeded to carry out the order with spirit, but on August 
7th the various departments were consolidated into one, called 
the Middle Military Department, which was placed in charge 
of General Sheridan. ' Grant remained long enough to firmly 
fix his young lieutenant in command, and then returned to. 
his army before Petersburg, with the assurance that things 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 323 

would move with less friction about Washington and in the 
Valley. 

What did Sheridan do? He immediately threw together 
the active forces at his disposal, consisting of the Sixth Corps, 
two small divisions under Crook, one division of the Nine- 
teenth Corps, and a division of cavalry under Averill. These 
were soon joined by Torbert's and Wilson's divisions of cavalry 
from Petersburg. Taking the offensive at Halltown he pushed 
Early rapidly southward beyond Cedar Creek. Here he 
learned that a strong body of infantry and cavalry, with 
twenty field pieces, was moving by way of Culpeper and 
Front Royal to reinforce Early. Sheridan therefore assumed 
a defensive attitude with Halltown as a base. On the 16th 
of August the Confederate reinforcements, which turned out 
to be a part of Longstreet's Corps from Lee's army, attacked 
Merritt's division at Front Royal, but were repulsed, losing 
two standards and three hundred prisoners. Sheridan retired 
slowly to Halltown, the retreat being a succession of brisk 
skirmishes. By the 19th he was firmly entrenched and await- 
ing developments. On the 25th, Torbert, Merritt and Wilson 
were ordered to fall upon Fitzhugh Lee at Kerneysville. 
Instead of Lee, they encountered the Confederate infantry 
under Breckinridge making for Shepherdstown with a view 
to crossing the Potomac again. A determined battle took 
place, which resulted in the recall of Breckinridge by Early, 
and the retreat of his entire army, the next day, south of 
the Opequan, pursued by Sheridan. 

Word now came that Early had been stripped of part of his 
force to aid Lee. Grant thought this the time for Sheridan to 
strike, but fearing to trust to telegraph orders in a matter so 
momentous, he again made a personal visit to the scene, 
September 16th. Finding that Sheridan had grasped the situ- 
ation and was confident of his ability to handle Early, he 
instructed him, in the language of his official report, to " Go 



324 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

in." By September 19th Sheridan was on the move, Wilson 
on his left, Torbert on the right, the infantry between the two. 
Wilson forced a crossing of the Opequan, dashed through a 
heavily wooded ravine, and struck the right of Ramseur's 
division two miles from Winchester. The attack was sudden 
and impetuous, and the enemy's entrenchments were carried. 
They returned to re-capture them, but were again defeated. 
The ground was held by Wilson till Upton's brigade of the 
Sixth Corps came to his relief. The rest of the Federal army 
now came into position rapidly. Torbert supported by Mer- 
ritt's division, advancing from Summit Point to cross the Ope- 
quan, was delayed by opposition, but finally reached the scene. 
The Sixth and Nineteenth moved resolutely into action. Early 
was making all haste to concentrate and form on the ridge 
east of Winchester. 

The two armies met squarely and without cover. Fighting 
soon became general and obstinate. The mortality was great 
on both sides. The Federal advance was sustained till Early 
concentrated on Sheridan's centre and drove it back moment- 
arily. Upton, with a brigade of Russell's division, was thrown 
forward, and catching Early on his flank, broke his attack and 
drove him from the field. Russell was slain and Upton badly 
wounded. Crook, who was in reserve, with designs on the 
enemy's left, was whirled rapidly to the right with orders to 
find and crush it. Aided by Torbert, with Merritt's and 
Averill's horse, this movement told with terriffic effect. Both 
of Early's flanks were crowded upon his demoralized centre, 
and his rout became complete. Night saved his army from 
destruction. Under cover of the timely darkness he retreated 
southward. The next day Sheridan engaged in hot pursuit, 
and found him entrenched at Fisher's Hill. 

Crook turned his left and got position in the woods near 
Strasburg. On September 22d the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps 
confronted Early. Rickett's division and Averill's cavalry 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 325 

advanced in impetuous charge, and began a battle which 
engaged all of Early's attention. When at its height, Crook 
suddenly descended from the wooded hillside on his flank and 
rear, swept away his entire lines, captured many guns and 
prisoners, and threw his army into confusion. In anticipation 
of his further retreat, Torbert had been sent up the Luray 
Valley to intercept him, but he found the way obstructed. 
Early fell rapidly back through New Market, Harrisonburg, 
Port Republic, and thence to Brown's Gap in the Blue-Ridge. 
Sheridan, having cleared the Valley, withdrew to Harrisonburg 
and thence to a point beyond Strasburg. 

Wilson was now sent west to reorganize the cavalry in 
Sherman's department. The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps were 
under orders to return to Petersburg as soon as they could be 
spared. Sheridan was unmolested except by the Confederate 
cavalry under Rossa, whom he attacked with Custer's Third 
at Tom's Creek, and after a sharp fight captured eleven guns 
and four hundred prisoners, pursuing him twenty-six miles. 
On October ioth Sheridan was called to Washington to confer 
about future operations. In the meantime Early had been 
reinforced, and on October 19th had again passed northward 
through Strasburg, marching rapidly and secretly. Crossing 
the Shenandoah in order to avoid the Federal army, making a 
forced night march, and then suddenly recrossing again under 
cover of a fog, he completely turned Crook's left, and drove 
him, and the whole army, toward Middletown, with the loss 
of many men as prisoners and nearly all the artillery. The 
Confederates were overcome with their success. Stopping too 
long to take an account of their booty, Wright got his forces 
partially reorganized and was ready for further action. Sheri- 
dan had just arrived at Winchester from Washington. Hearing 
the cannonading in the distance, he started under spur on that 
famous trip of twenty miles which has since become embalmed 
in poetry as "Sheridan's Ride." 



326 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

On his way he met bands of demoralized fugitives from his 
army, sight of whom increased his apprehension and urged to 
swifter motion. Riding upon the field, he hastily shoved his 
rearward troops to the positions held by Getty and Torbert, 
and ordered them to entrench as rapidly as possible. His 
staff officers were started to the rear to check the fugitives and 
reform them. Merritt's cavalry was placed on the left, Cus- 
ter's on the right, Powell's (formerly Averill's) on the Front 
Royal pike. By the vigor of his generalship, and the inspira- 
tion of his presence, he soon had his forces in hand, and 
sufficiently restored to confidence to warrant an offensive 
movement. The movement began at 4 p. m. It was not im- 
petuous, but resolute, steady, and co-operative. The Confed- 
erates resisted stubbornly from behind fences, hedges and 
improvised breastworks. Once they threw a part of the Nine- 
teenth Corps into confusion, but Sheridan dashed to the head 
of McMillan's brigade and, leading it in person, broke the 
Confederate onset and re-established order. Custer now 
charged in from the right, simultaneously with a rapid and 
more determined assault along the entire infantry lines. The 
Confederate columns began to stagger and break, and then con- 
fusion set in. Soon they were in rout and disastrous retreat, 
leaving their own artillery and that they had captured, together 
with a great number of prisoners and other trophies of war. 

This victory, snatched so opportunely from a flushed and 
audacious foe by the spirit and dash of the gallant cavalry- 
man, ended Early's campaigns in the Valley, and, very nearly, 
his military career. He lurked amid the mountain passes, and 
occasionally made timid raids into the open, but never again 
assumed an offensive with a regularly organized force. Sheri- 
dan now disposed of his cavalry so as to drive out guerrillas 
during the winter. The Sixth Corps was returned to Peters- 
burg. The Nineteenth was divided and one part sent to the 
Army of the James (Butler's), the other to Savannah to wel- 



328 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

come and reinforce Sherman, when he should appear after his 
march from "Atlanta to the Sea." 

During these splendid and thrilling operations in the Shen- 
andoah Valley, Sheridan's forces never exceeded thirty thousand 
effectives. Early's forces were quite as numerous. The Fed- 
eral losses in all the engagements footed, 1938 killed; 11,893 
wounded; 3 1 21 missing; total, 16,952. Early's losses in 
killed and wounded were doubtless as many, while he lost 
thirteen thousand as prisoners ; making a total of, say twenty- 
seven thousand. He lost in addition one hundred pieces of 
artillery and five thousand small arms, besides other valuable 
property. The campaign fully vindicated Grant's choice of a 
lieutenant, and his wisdom in consolidating the hitherto dis- 
cordant departments around Washington. It gave further 
evidence of his ability to cope with Lee in that strategy which 
was designed to distract attention from Petersburg or to take 
advantage of the absence of northern armies from the vicinity 
of Washington. Not a single probability, or actual phase of 
the situation had been overlooked, and every contingency was 
met as fast as it arose. More than all, it had been so met as to 
count infinitely against Lee, by the crippling of his cavalry, the 
virtual breaking up of one of his largest corps de armee, and 
the loss of enough artillery to supply two or three efficient corps. 

We must now return to the operations around Petersburg. 
During the compulsory absence of the Sixth Corps and most 
of the cavalry from the Army of the Potomac, military opera- 
tions about the beleaguered city, and indeed on the south side 
of the James, were mostly of a defensive character. We have 
seen what these were up to July, or in other words, up till the 
time of the withdrawal of forces for the protection of Wash- 
ington and for the Valley campaigns. In general, July and 
August were devoted to strengthening the entrenchments from 
the Appomattox to the Jerusalem plank road on the south of 
Petersburg. Siege batteries were erected and strongly mounted, 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 329 

redoubts were built at commanding points, and by September 
1 2th the railroad from City Point supplied the entire lines with 
ammunition and supplies. 

But the monotony of the situation was often broken by sudden 
and startling events and by strategic tests and trials of strength. 
For days, at times, the firing from some newly erected fort, or 
from all, would be almost incessant. To dig, to build, to push, 
on the south of Petersburg till the Weldon railroad was reached 
was a supreme object on the part of Grant But the enemy 
had cut off hope of getting much beyond the Jerusalem plank 
road by a system of formidable works. The strength of these 
must however be tried — not directly, to be sure, but perhaps 
they could be turned and rendered useless. The trial fell on 
the Second Corps. Mott and Barlow were thrown forward. 
Their movement left a gap between the Second and Sixth 
which the Confederates took advantage of. Swarming from 
behind their works into the opening, they struck the flanks of 
these two advancing divisions and virtually swept them away. 
Rushing on, they rolled up Gibbon's division, capturing guns, 
works and two thousand five hundred prisoners. This vigorous 
onslaught forced a contraction of the Federal left, and a strict 
defensive in that quarter for several weeks. 

Again the work of building, mining and besieging went on, 
more methodically, if possible, than ever. The operations 
against the Petersburg front, opposed by the Ninth and Fifth 
Corps, were ordered to be conducted by regular approaches. 
In Burnside's corps was a regiment of Pennsylvania miners, 
under Colonel Pleasants. These sunk a shaft and drove a 
gallery one hundred and fifty yards to the front, and directly 
under a Confederate work on Cemetery Hill. Lateral galleries 
were run into it making a system of mines, which were loaded 
with gunpowder. There were eight magazines in all, each 
primed with four thousand pounds of powder. Grant thought 
advantage might be taken of the explosion to storm success- 



330 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

fully the Confederate works. But he would first weaken their 
force by a diversion, and perhaps do more. 

The Second Corps was (July 26th) quietly withdrawn from 
the investing lines and crossed over the pontoon bridges (July 
27th) to the north side of the James at Deep Bottom. Sheridan, 
with two divisions of cavalry, followed it. Foster of the 
Tenth held the bridges. Bailey's creek runs into the James 
oa the north side at Deep Bottom. The enemy were found in 
force behind and on the Richmond side of this creek. Han- 
cock deployed with Sheridan on his right. Foster was asked 
to swing in on the left, which he did very swiftly, driving the 
enemy and capturing four guns. Sheridan forced the fighting 
on the right and was equally successful. He captured four 
hundred prisoners. The enemy were now behind their breast- 
works and fully protected. It was the night of July 28th. 
Lee now hurried all the troops he could spare, cavalry and 
infantry, to the endangered point. On the morning of July 
29th, Hancock was confronted by an entrenched force, three 
times the number of his own. While it was intended that 
Sheridan should make a dash upon Richmond, supported by 
Hancock, if the way proved open, or an unsupported raid upon 
the railroads to the north, the real object of the expedition was 
now accomplished, viz. : the diversion of Lee's strength to the 
north side of the James. Therefore, on the night of the 29th 
of July, Hancock and Sheridan both speedily and quietly with- 
drew to the south side of the river, and took their places about 
Petersburg. 

At the same time Ord, now in command of the Eighteenth 
Corps, and Turner's division of the Tenth, were given a place 
in the lines. The explosion of the mine and the assault were 
fixed for morning of July 30th, at half-past three. Full and 
express orders were issued to all the corps commanders when 
to move and what to do. Burnside was to prepare his para- 
pets and abattis for the passage of columns, have his pioneers 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 331 

equipped to open passages for artillery, destroy the enemy's 
abattis, and secure lodgments. Warren was to support Burn- 
side's assault. Ord was to put Mott's division in the entrench- 
ments of the Eighteenth Corps, and form his troops in the rear 
of the Ninth. Hancock was to be up from Deep Bottom, and 
in position in Mott's rear ready to follow up the assault. Sher- 
idan was to operate on the enemy's left against the roads lead- 
ing to Petersburg from the south As soon as the explosion 
took place, Burnside was to move rapidly on the breach, seize 
the crest, and effect a lodgment. Ord was to follow on the 
right and Warren on the left. All the artillery within range 
was to open on those points of the enemy's works whose fire 
covered the ground over which the assaulting columns must 
move. 

These orders were carried out strictly by all the commanders, 
except Burnside. His parapets and abattis were not prepared 
for the columns of attack. His pioneers were not ready for 
effective work, nor were his entrenching tools distributed. 
Meade, in an interview with Burnside, Wilcox, Potter and 
Ledlie, on the 29th, impressed on them the necessity of taking 
advantage of the enemy's confusion to gain the crest beyond, 
that the holding of the crater would be of no possible use, and 
that if the assault was unsuccessful, the troops must be with- 
drawn at once. 

The mine was on the Confederate General Johnson's front 
at the centre of Elliott's brigade. Wise's brigade was on 
Elliott's right, Ransom's on his left, Grade's on Ransom's left. 
A defect in the fuse delayed the firing of the mine till twenty 
minutes to five. Then the earth shivered and broke, an entire 
battery and part of two regiments vanished, and a great chasm 
yawned. The Confederates were surprised and fled in dismay 
from that part of the line, not knowing when the next explo- 
sion might take place, nor where. Now the Federal heavy 
guns and mortars, eighty-one in all, and an equal number of 



332 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

field guns opened and kept down the fire of the enemy's 
salients and batteries at all points. 

The moment for assault was at hand. Precious minutes were 
lost in getting the assaulting columns through improperly 
prepared debouches on Burnside's front. Ledlie's division, 
headed by the Second Brigade, at last moved into the crater, 
and became a fixed, confused mass there. Ledlie did 
not accompany it. A resolute commander would have been 
on the crest in fifteen minutes, and before opposition could 
have been made. Meade expected that the whole Ninth 
Corps would advance quickly on the right and left of its lead- 
ing division. The Confederates had time to recover from 
their surprise. They returned to their posts and began a 
musketry fire on Ledlie's men in the crater, and on Elliott, 
who was endeavoring to form on the crest beyond. 
Elliott fell, wounded, and Colonel McMaster took his place. 
All the while the musketry fire was waxing warmer on the 
men in the crater. But two or three hundred at a time could 
be gotten upon the crest beyond, and these melted away before 
they could be made effective. Thus nearly an hour passed, 
with no point gained and with sad loss of life. At length a 
Confederate battery of field guns (Wright's), some six hundred 
yards to the right of the mine, and in a protected spot, opened 
an enfilading fire, sweeping all the ground between the Fed- 
eral entrenchments and the crater. This was soon seconded 
by another on the left, equally protected. All this was fast 
precluding the possibility of successful assault according to 
any prearranged plan. Yet in the midst of it, Potter's division, 
pressing forward by the flank, and Griffin's brigade, took the 
enemy's entrenchments for a considerable space, driving Elliott 
back on Ransom. A brigade of Wilcox's division fought its 
way to the left of the crater, and also gained a foothold in the 
entrenchments after hard fighting. Every forward movement 
was hampered by the unremoved obstructions on Burnside's 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 333 

front, by*the indecision occasioned by confused commands, by 
the dread uncertainties of the situation. The other corps 
commanders found no weakening of the enemy in their fronts 
and saw no opportunity for co-operative attack. Burnside 
could not get his attacking forces to move in concert, and 
some made fatal delays. The operating spaces were small, 
which onlv served to mix the commands and be^et disconcert. 
There was no orderly, united, determined assault, but a series 
of daring dashes which, being unsupported, came to nought 
or ended in disaster. 

At 6 o'clock, Lee heard of the explosion. He at once rein- 
forced the points opposite the crater, and prepared to recapture 
the entrenchments taken by the Federals. Potter's position 
was first assailed, and he was driven back with the loss of all 
he had gained. A terrific fire was now centred on the con- 
fused masses in and about the crater, or upon the crest in 
front. The slaughter was fearful for a time. Satisfied that the 
time for success had passed, and that further attempt would only 
result in useless sacrifice, Meade, with the concurrence of 
Grant, withdrew the troops to their respective lines. The 
Federal losses during the day were 419 killed, 1679 wounded, 
and 1 9 10 missing. The Confederate losses were 400 killed, 
600 wounded, and 200 missing. 

"Thus," says General Grant, "terminated in disaster what 
promised to be the most successful assault of the campaign." 
The combination and direction of forces had been made 
with consummate ability. Lee was completely deceived 
and had been induced to part with half his strength to resist a 
feint on his capital. Grant had his entire force at command 
and under orders to take advantage of the surprise occasioned 
by the explosion. The explosion had rid the enemy's works 
of defenders for several hundred yards. The failure was due 
to inefficient preparation by a set of officers who had no con- 
fidence in the project. Said the report of the Court of Inquiry, 



334 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

in substance, " The assault failed from mismanagement anc 
misbehavior on the part of several of the chief actors." 

The Confederates were elated over the failure, and Lee 
availed himself of the deadlock which followed to make his 
demonstrations in the Valley and upon Washington, which we 
have already read about. Grant was bitterly disappointed, but 
lost no faith in ultimate success. The failure only matured in 
his mind that scheme by which, should the end not sooner 
come, he would boldly cut loose from his base at City Point, 
throw himself into the interior below and bevond Petersburg- 
and, operating directly on the enemy's communications, compel 
him to abandon his strong fortifications, and give or receive 
battle on equal terms. 

On July 20th, after Lee had detached Early for operations 
about Washington, and Grant had detached the Sixth Corps, 
the relative strength of the forces in and about Petersburg was 
as follows : Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, infantry, 39.295 ; 
cavalry, 8436. Army of the Potomac, infantry, 37,984; cav- 
alry, 10,280. Arm\- of James, at Bermuda Hundred, infantry, 
24,009; cavalry, 1880. The two armies went on perfecting 
their works, and as their respective lines could be held by small 
forces, the larger portions were free for movement. 

The reader must now recall what has been said of the Valley 
campaign, and of Early's retreat to Brown's Gap, pursued by 
Sheridan. Early was reinforced and returned to the Valley. 
Three divisions of infantry were sent to him, and one of 
cavalry. As a counter to this, Grant sent Hancock, in com- 
mand of his own and part of the Tenth Corps, together with 
Gregg's cavalry, north of the James to demonstrate on Rich- 
mond. Secrecy was of moment. The Second was sent by 
boat to the lower pontoon at Deep Bottom, on the night of 
August 13th. The cavalry and artillery went by land. 
Marching up toward Richmond, the enemy was found in 
his strong position at Bailey's creek. Mott held the centre, 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 335 

Birney the left, and Barlow was sent well to the right to 
attack and turn the Confederate left. He made several unsuc- 
cessful assaults on their entrenched lines, to hold which they 
weakened their right. Birney took advantage of this and 
made a dashing assault, capturing six guns and several 
hundred prisoners. It was the night of the 14th, and opera- 
tions had to be suspended, though with orders to resume 
attack early in the morning. That night the enemy received 
reinforcements from south of the James. Hancock therefore 
made a new disposition of his forces, and sent Birney to find 
and turn the enemy's left. It existed nowhere short of Rich- 
mond. Yet on the 16th, he ordered Birney to attack at a 
weak point, which he did, capturing some prisoners and 
colors. But he was soon driven back. Hancock found every 
point too well guarded to hope for success from further trial. 
The Confederates concentrated on their extreme left against 
Gregg and Miles and drove them back across Deep creek. 
They had thus cleared their entire front. Hancock maintained 
his position till the night of the 20th, when he was withdrawn. 
The casualties during this demonstration were 321 killed, 1840 
wounded and 625 missing. 

The effect of these movements on Lee was to weaken his 
right covering the southern railroads. Warren was therefore 
drawn from the entrenchments at Petersburg and sent, on the 
morning of August 1 8th, well around the enemy's right to 
strike the Weldon railroad. He struck it by noon, planted his 
forces firmly across it and began a march in the direction of 
Petersburg. In a short time he found the enemy well posted 
and disposed to resist. Ayres' and Crawford's divisions were 
formed in line of battle, the former on the left, the latter on the 
right. The Confederates suddenly assailed Ayres' extreme 
left and threw it into confusion, but it was speedily rallied, 
and by free use of musketry and artillery the Confederate 
onset was checked ; not, however, until the Federal losses 



336 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

amounted to a thousand men in killed wounded and prisoners. 
The enemy's losses were even heavier, and his dead and 
wounded were left on the ground. On the morning of the 
19th, Bragg, of Cutler's division, was sent to Crawford's right 
to see if he could not force a connection with the Ninth Corps 
in the regular entrenchments. The ground was irregular and 
woods thick. Progress was slow and almost impossible. Lee 
had gotten word of Warren's occupancy of the railroad, and had 
hurried down two divisions from the north of the James. In 
the afternoon one of these divisions (Mahone's) broke through 
Bragg's lines, faced to the right and swept down on Crawford's 
right flank, carrying his skirmishers and parts of his rear line 
of battle. The front lines had to fall back, with a part of 
Ayres' left. At this moment Heth made a furious attack on 
Ay res', but Warren brought up all the receded lines and 

regained the ground temporarily lost. 
Mahone was driven inside of his en- 
trenchments and Heth was repulsed, 
but not driven. The Federal losses 
were three hundred and eighty-two in 
killed and wounded and two thous- 
and five hundred and eighteen mis- 
sing, most of which were prisoners. 
The enemy lost very heavily in killed 
and wounded, for the action, though 

GEN. FITZHUGH LEE. ^ was ^^ and determ ; ned 

Warren now fell back a mile out of the dense woods and 
entrenched on the line of the railroad. 

Lee now found that Hancock had been withdrawn from the 
north side of the James. He accordingly withdrew the forces 
sent thither and organized an attack on Warren, to be con- 
ducted by Hill's corps, Hoke's division and Fitzhugh Lee's 
cavalry. This was August 21st. It opened with thirty guns 
on Warren's right and front, followed by an assault, which 




SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 337 

was everywhere repulsed. Warren's loss was three hundred 
and one killed, wounded and missing. The enemy left two 
hundred and eleven dead on the field, among them General 
Sanders. Warren also captured five hundred and seventeen 
officers and men and six flags, the greater part of Hagood's 
brigade. 

Warren's position on theWeldon railroad now seemed secure. 
The Ninth Corps pushed their entrenchments from the Jeru- 
salem plank road so as to connect with his right. It was a 
great point gained, for it cut off one direct and important com- 
munication with Petersburg. But the enemy could use the 
road below. On August 22d, Hancock, with two divisions 
of his corps and Gregg's cavalry, was sent to Warren's rear to 
destroy the railroad southward to Rowanty creek. By night 
of the 24th, they had accomplished their work as far as Ream's 
Station and had five more miles to destroy. 

But this kind of work would prove too fatal to Lee to 
admit of its going on without a desperate effort to stop it. 
Hill's corps, with Anderson's division of Longstreet's, and 
Hampton's two cavalry divisions were sent out to drive Han- 
cock off That officer hastily improvised rather awkward 
entrenchments at Ream's Station, and placed Gibbon's Second 
Division on the left and Miles' First Division on the right. It 
was August 25th. At five in the afternoon, Hill opened a heavy 
artillery fire on Hancock's position, which did little damage. 
He then massed and assaulted Miles' front, part of which, 
composed of new troops, gave way. Hancock ordered a 
reserve of the Second Division to Mile's support but it failed 
to respond. Murphy's brigade of the Second, on the left of the 
break, was driven back and lost two batteries. Hancock 
ordered Gibbon to retake the guns, but his forces seemed to 
be demoralized. The moment was a critical one, and would 
have ended in a complete rout but for the steadiness of the 
remaining portions of Miles' First Division. Miles rallied the 

22 



33§ LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Sixty-First New York regiment at right angles with his own 
breastworks, swept the enemy off his entire front, retook the 
lost guns, and re-established a considerable part of his broken 
lines. Hampton now attacked Gibbon's position on the left 
with his cavalry, dismounted, and drove him from his defences, 
almost without a struggle. Passing on with cheers, the victo- 
rious troopers suddenly met a heavy flank fire from Gregg's 
cavalry, also dismounted, which checked their advance. They 
then fell upon Gregg and drove him back to a new line, which 
Gibbon had by this time formed in the rear. Miles and 
Gregg then stubbornly held on till dark, and even offered to 
retake their original lines, but Gibbon stated that his division 
could not retake theirs. Mott and Wilcox had been sent to 
reinforce Hancock, but neither of them had yet come. There- 
fore, Hancock withdrew from his exposed position. The 
enemy did not molest him nor follow, but returned to Peters- 
burg, leaving Hampton to hold Ream's Station. Hancock 
lamented his want of success, and attributed it to failure of 
promised reinforcement and the bad condition of his men on 
account of the oppressive weather and large number of raw 
recruits. He lost six hundred and ten killed and wounded 
and one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two missing ; also 
nine guns. A very large per cent, of the killed were officers. 
Hill reported his losses at seven hundred and twenty killed 
and wounded, and his captures at twelve flags, nine guns, ten 
caissons, two thousand one hundred and fifty prisoners, three 
thousand and one hundred small arms. 

September was consumed in entrenching the newly acquired 
front south of Petersburg. On September 28th, another ex- 
pedition against Richmond was ordered under Ord of the 
Eighteenth and Birney of the Tenth Corps. The moving 
force was ten thousand strong, and accompanied by Kautz's 
cavalry. It crossed the James by night at Aiken's and 
marched to Chapin's farm, in the direction of Richmond. 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 339 

Here it struck the enemy's entrenchments. Ord received a 
heavy artillery fire from Fort Harrison, and quickly made his 
disposition for attack. Pushing Stannard's division to the 
foot of the hill on which the fort stood, Burnham's brigade 
ran, under a severe fire, up the slope, and after a short and 
determined encounter captured the works with sixteen guns 
and a number of prisoners. Burnham was killed in the 
assault. The Federals now charged right and left and cap- 
tured two outer works with six guns. Ord now endeavored 
to sweep toward the river to capture the remaining redan, and 
a pontoon bridge, but they were covered by the enemy's gun- 
boats and the attempt was unsuccessful. Ord was severely 
wounded and the command devolved on General Heckmann, 
who immediately attacked Fort Gilmer, but was repulsed. 
Birney had been for some time driving the enemy back on the 
New Market road. He now threw out his left and connected 
with Heckmann. Law's brigade came to the fort in the after- 
noon to help hold it. Grant now came upon the scene, and 
ordered both corps to advance. Birney's corps received the 
brunt of the fire from Ft. Gilmer, which his brigade of colored 
troops attempted to take by repeated assaults. There was 
hard fighting over difficult ground and against strong and 
intricate entrenchments for a long time, but without further 
decided results. 

Ewell and Lee both came upon the scene with heavy rein- 
forcements. It was at once determined to retake Ft. Harri- 
son. All night and till the next afternoon reinforcements 
were coming up from Petersburg and disposition was being 
made for the attack. The Federals were busy strengthening 
it. The assault began at two o'clock on the afternoon of 
September 30th. The Confederates advanced in strong 
column and under cover of a heavy artillery fire, till they were 
quite close. The Federals then opened a hot musketry fire 
and drove them back. They reformed and attacked a second 



340 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and third time, but were again repulsed with great loss. The 
Federal losses during the two days' operations were, killed, 
394; wounded, 1554; missing, 324; total, 2272. The Con- 
federate losses must have been even heavier. 

This entire move north of the James was with a view of 
attracting enough of Lee's strength from the south of Peters- 
burg to warrant another effort to extend the Federal lines 
beyond the Weldon railroad, and as far as the Boydton Plank- 
road. Accordingly, Warren pushed out Griffin's and Ayres' 
divisions on his left, General Parke (Parke had succeeded 
Burnside as commander of the Ninth Corps) with Wilcox's 
and Potter's divisions following. Griffin soon struck a heavy 
line of entrenchments which he carried. Ayres' division carried 
a redoubt on Griffin's right. These two captures gave them the 
entire line of entrenchments at this point. Potter's division 
advanced to Griffin's left, and Wilcox's to Potter's left. Thus 
formed, they moved toward the Boydton road. Potter came 
upon the enemy's main line of entrenchments first. They ex- 
tended from Petersburg to Hatcher's Run and covered both 
the Boydton plank and Southside railroad. Potter advanced to 
attack, but was met by a counter attack and driven back, 
as well as one of Wilcox's brigades. A new line was quickly 
formed which checked the enemy's advance. 

On the afternoon of October 1st Mott's division arrived on 
Parke's left. On the 2d Parke advanced his entire lines, by 
dint of hard fighting, and entrenched within a mile of the 
enemy's works. These were connected on the right with 
works crossing the Weldon railroad, and made secure by redoubts 
and batteries. The casualties were six hundred and sixty-one 
killed and wounded, and one thousand three hundred and 
forty-eight missing. The result was a material extension of 
the Federal lines westward, and so as to threaten the South- 
side railroad. 

On October 7th, Kautz's cavalry, on the north of the James, 




SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



341 




rEN. Kj 



TZ. 



was driven from its position on the Darby road, and fell back 
upon the Tenth Corps, with the 
loss of its two batteries and two 
hundred and seventy-four men 
killed, wounded and missing-. 
On October 24th, Grant issued 
orders to Meade to make pre- 
parations to gain possession of 
the Southside railroad. All these 
operations of the Federal army 
on the south of Petersburg were 
telling disastrously on the Con- 
federates. The loss of the Wel- 
don road was a blow which 
carried consternation into both 

military and political circles. Every movement of Grant 
westward increased the apprehension. Lee saw that it was 
like drawing a deadly cordon about him. Hence his hercu- 
lean efforts to forestall Grant's westward progress, and to 
keep his communications open both for purposes of supply and 
retreat, which last was fast becoming inevitable by reason of the 
industiy, skill and pertinacity evinced by the Federal leader. 

Lee accordingly threw all his available forces out along the 
Southside railroad to protect it. Meade organized his ad- 
vance for the morning of October 27th. The point was to 
turn the enemy's flank at the crossing of the Boydton plank- 
road and Hatcher's Run. Parke's Ninth was to make a feint 
on the entrenchments. Warren was to cross the run and 
push for the Southside railroad. Hancock was to do the 
same, but to recross the run above and strike the railroad at 
Sutherland Station. Both Parke and Warren soon struck the 
enemy's pickets, and found strong defensive works ahead of 
them. It was therefore late when Warren got Crawford's 
division across the run to connect with Hancock, already over. 



342 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The woods were thick and every way obstructed. But by 
most persevering effort, the forces came into the open, only to 
meet a heavy artillery fire, and find themselves the object of 
direct attack, which at one time threatened to sever Hancock 
from Crawford. There was severe, but uncertain fighting for 
a long time, with the nearest point on the Southside railroad 
yet four miles away. Further to the left Hampton made 
a sweep down upon Gregg's cavalry and would have driven it 
but for prompt assistance rendered by Hancock. 

Night descended on a region as gloomy and uncertain as 
the " Wilderness " had been. Grant and Meade had both 
been on the scene during the afternoon. They agreed that 
the Federal entrenchments were not yet extended sufficiently 
westward to warrant an attempt to take and hold the South- 
side railroad at a point so near to Petersburg as Sutherland 
Station. The corps were therefore recalled and assigned to 
their old positions. The losses were one thousand six hundred 
in killed, wounded and missing. 

As a diversion to this movement, Butler had been ordered 
to move from Bermuda Hundred direct against Richmond 
and on the north side of the James. He found the fortifica- 
tions invincible, and returned. The season for active cam- 
paigning was now over. Both armies built huts and made 
themselves comfortable for the winter, though no opportunity 
was lost to shell the enemy's weak points and gain an advan- 
tage. The Federals in particular kept busy on the south side 
of Petersburg pushing their fortifications westward to 
Hatcher's Run. The Valley campaigns were over, and the 
forces that had been subtracted to carry them on were return- 
ing to their old commands. There went on, too, a reorganiza ■ 
tion of the army corps. Hancock was sent to Washington to 
organize a new First Corps. Ord organized the Twenty- 
Fourth, and Weitzel the Twenty-Fifth. The Tenth and 
Eighteenth were discontinued. 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 343 

The winter of 1864-5 was severe. Picket duty on either 
side was full of suffering. The Confederate army especially 
was uncomfortable on account of dearth of supplies. Virginia 
had been exhausted. The rolling stock of the open railroads 
was well worn. Finding that the Weldon road was still used 
up to a certain point, with which connection was made from 
Richmond by wagon train, it was destroyed still further south, 
and in February a strenuous effort was made to push the 
Federal left well beyond Hatcher's Run so as to cut the wagon 
roads running toward Richmond. The effort was only par- 
tially successful and entailed a loss of two thousand men. It 
was among the last of those persistent efforts made by Grant 
to turn the Confederate right and reach the Southside railroad 
by successive and fortified extensions of his left. 

And now two mighty minds were at work on very nearly 
the same problem though for different purposes. Grant knew 
that his investment of Petersburg and his repeated raids on the 
Richmond communications were operating with deadly effect 
on the Confederate army and carrying demoralization to the 
Confederacy. He felt that Lee must, ere long, abandon both 
Petersburg and Richmond, not only to seek a new field of 
supplies, but to join his fortunes with Johnston whom Sher- 
man was pushing eastward and northward. It was never his 
purpose to let an enemy escape if he could help it. Therefore 
his spring campaign would take on new and original features. 
Already (February 27th) Sheridan was abroad, moving from 
Winchester up the Valley. He passed through Staunton, 
Charlotteville, Gordonville, and to within a short distance of 
Lynchburg, destroying railroads and supplies. He also de- 
stroyed the James river canal for miles, completely annihila- 
ting it as a supply line. By March 27th he was back with 
the army. 

The problem of how to get away became more prominent 
with Lee. There were but two lines left, the Richmond and 



344 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Danville, and the Southside railroads. At a conference 
between Jefferson Davis and Lee, in March, it was agreed that 
Richmond and Petersburg should be abandoned, and the 
Army of Northern Virginia moved to Danville to unite with 
Johnston and attack Sherman. Preparations were made 
accordingly. They involved an attack on the Federal right 
where it crossed the Appomattox, in order to draw Grant's 
strength from his left. The object selected was Fort Stedman. 
An assault was made upon it, on March 25th, by Gordon's 
corps, and a part of A. P. Hill's. The attack was well planned. 
At half-past four in the morning, the enemy broke the trench 
guard, and then the main line between batteries 9 and 10. 
Turning right and left, they captured the garrison of Stedman, 
after a spirited resistance, and also the adjacent batteries. The 
Federals were in great confusion, and could not distinguish 
friend from foe. General McLaughlin's brigade recaptured 
battery 1 1 at the point of the bayonet, but on entering Fort 
Stedman in ignorance of the situation, he was taken prisoner. 
General Parke now got his corps (Ninth) in order, and directed 
Wilcox, supported by Hartranft, to retake the works. By 
half-past seven, all had been regained, after most obstinate 
fighting, except battery 10 and Fort Stedman. Hartranft 
charged gallantly upon these and carried the fort, capturing 
two thousand prisoners and nine stand of colors. The total 
losses of the Ninth Corps were four hundred and ninety-four 
killed and wounded, and five hundred and twenty -three missing. 
The Second and Six Corps were also involved, and met with 
serious losses. The total Federal losses were two thousand 
killed, wounded and missing. Those of the enemy nearly four 
thousand, including the prisoners. 

This opening of the spring campaign was not auspicious 
for Lee. He had not even so much as disturbed the onward 
flow of those preparations which Grant now had well under 
way, and which would culminate in a few days. In so far as 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 345 

they relate to Petersburg and to the armies south of the James, 
we must drop them for a few moments to get a view of the 
general situation. 

Two outside matters of great moment bore directly on 
Grant's spring campaign of 1865. The first was the fact that 
the port of Wilmington, N. C, was still open to the Confed- 
eracy, and a rendezvous for hostile cruisers and blockade-run- 
ners. Arms, ammunition, clothing and food were landed there 
and shipped thence into the interior in exchange for cotton. 
As a part of the policy of cutting off all supplies from the Con- 
federate army at Richmond, and as an especial blow at the 
enemy's forces which were fast gathering into an army under 
Johnston and gravitating eastward and northward before Sher- 
man, Grant deemed it prudent to signalize his spring operations 
by closing this port. In November, 1 864, he went to Fortress 
Monroe to consult with Admiral Porter. An expedition was 
agreed upon, to consist of the naval vessels under Porter, and an 
army of sixty-five hundred men, the same to sail in December. 
That time was selected as opportune because Bragg had sent his 
North Carolina command to Georgia for the purpose of making 
head against Sherman. Butler furnished the necessary land 
forces from his army, and placed them under General Weitzel. 
On December 6th, Grant wrote : "The first object of the expe- 
dition under Weitzel is to close to the enemy the port of 
Wilmington. If successful in this, the second will be to capture 
Wilmington itself." 

On December 1 6th, the expedition was ready, and Butler 
himself chose to retain command of it. It arrived before 
Fort Fisher, the key to the situation, on December 15th, but 
owing to rough weather, an attack was delayed. On the 24th, 
a hulk laden with gunpowder was run under the fort, and 
exploded without effect. On the 25th, the troops were landed, 
under cover of a heavy fire from the fleet, and reconnoissances 
were made by Curtis and Weitzel. Though they both got 



346 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

good positions, and Curtis was anxious to attack, Butler 
declared an assault impolitic. He had not agreed with Porter 
as to details. The expedition returned empty-handed to 
Fortress Monroe. 

Grant was much chagrined at this failure, due to foolish con- 
servatism, petty disagreements, excessive timidity, or perhaps 
something worse. But on learning that only the land forces 
had returned, and that Porter was still off the entrance to Wil- 
mington with his fleet, and anxious to attack if properly sup- 
ported, Grant wrote him : " Please hold on wherever you are 
for a few days, and I will endeavor to be back again with an 
increased force, and without the former commander." Bragg 
had in the meantime recalled his forces to North Carolina, and 
Lee had sent down reinforcements from Richmond. Wilming- 
ton must be held, and the port kept open at whatever cost. 

Porter got Grant's letter on December 30th. On January 
1st, 1865, he replied: "Have just received yours? I shall be 
ready. Thank God we are not to leave here with so easy a 
victory in hand. Thank you for so promptly trying to rectify 
the blunder so lately committed. I knew you would do it 
. . . . " The former force was strengthened by the addition of 
fifteen hundred men, and General Terry was given command, 
with full and explicit sealed orders, not to be opened till at 
sea, to capture Fort Fisher, if possible, or to besiege it till it 
fell. A reserve was held at Fortress Monroe, at the call of 
Terry. By January 13th, the land and naval forces were 
together, and their respective commanders in accord. Terry's 
destination was not known, except to Grant himself and the 
authorities at Washington, for it had been given out, as a dis- 
guise, that Savannah was his objective. At daylight of the 
13th, Porter formed his fleet in three lines, and stood in to 
cover the landing. The iron-clads opened a terrific fire, 
which was continued for six hours, when the landing boats 
were manned and pushed off. By three o'clock, nearly eight 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 347 

thousand men, with nine days' rations, and entrenching 
tools, were upon the beach, at a point five miles below 
the fort. Here they formed a line, marched to within 
two miles of the fort, and there entrenched. By the 14th, their 
foothold was secure, and the artillery was landed. Bragg 
ordered Hoke's division to attack the Federals, but he found 
their position already too strong. All day Porter was battering 
the fort from his fleet, on the side upon which an assault was 
to be made. 

Terry now consulted with Porter. An assault was agreed 
upon for 3 p. m. of the 15th. The fleet was to open fire early 
in the morning and keep it up all day, diverting it to other 
parts of the fort after the assault began. Porter opened as 
agreed upon, and for six hours his mighty fleet, in three 
divisions, with an armament of nearly six hundred guns poured 
shell and metal missiles on every spot of earth about the fort. 
The gunners in the fort were driven from their posts and 
every gun was silenced. The fort contained about two 
thousand five hundred defenders. It was well built and admir- 
ably arranged with ditch, palisade, parapets and salients. 
Payne's division of colored troops and Abbott's brigade of 
white, in all four thousand seven hundred men, held a line 
between the fort and Wilmington to cover the assaulting 
columns. A force of marines under Capt. Breese charged the 
water side of the fort and held ground there to attract atten- 
tion. Ames' division was selected for the real charge. It was 
three thousand three hundred strong, composed of Curtis', 
Pennypacker's and Bell's brigades. Curtis was already in an 
outer work gained the day before. By noon, Pennypacker and 
Bell were close to him, and in position, eight hundred yards 
from the fort. The hour was at hand, and all ready. A hun- 
dred volunteer sharpshooters rushed forward to within two 
hundred yards of the fort. Being provided with shovels, they 
soon dug pits, from which they began a deadly fire on the 



34$ LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

parapets. This was the signal for the fort to open. Notwith- 
standing the heavy cannonading from the fleet, it poured forth 
surprising volleys of artillery and musketry in the direction of 
the assaulting columns. Curtis now moved in double quick 
time to a position within five hundred yards of the fort, where 
his' men scooped trenches with their tin cups to protect them- 
selves from the murderous fire from the parapets. Pennypacker 
fell into Curtis' place, and Bell into Pennypacker's. Again 
Curtis rushed forward to a position only fifty yards in the rear 
of the sharpshooters, where he entrenched as before, and again 
the other brigades advanced to the vacated places. Axemen 
now rushed forward to cut the palisading; Porter was signaled 
to change the direction of his fire; Ames gave the word to 
charge. The sailors and marines on the water front rushed 
gallantly forward amid a deadly fire. They cleared all obsta- 
cles, and some gained the parapets. But the enemy swarmed 
from their bomb-proofs, and mowed them down like grass. 
The attack was repelled with a loss of two hundred and eighty 
sailors and marines killed and wounded. On the land front, 
Curtis' brigade sprang forward over miry ground, into which 
some of his men sunk, reached the palisades, dashed through 
them and crowded the sally ports. Here they opened fire on 
the Confederate gunners, shot down two entire reliefs, and then 
charged for the parapets. The reeling lines before them broke, 
and the Federals got a foothold. Pennypacker's brigade, over- 
lapping Curtis' right, now followed in admirable charge. 
Forward the two brigades surged, sweeping a quarter of the 
land face of the fort. Bell swung round and hugged that face 
of the fort between the front and the river. 

Thus far all was well. But to hold the parapets was not to 
have the fort. Now began a battle never exceeded for closeness 
and fury. The respective foes used the traverses for breast- 
works, and fired over them full in each other's faces. The 
bomb-proofs let out their huddled contents of desperate de- 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



349 



fenders, who swarmed on the slopes, and met their foes in hand 
to hand encounter. Still the Federals, cheered on by brave 
officers, gained ground. They scaled or turned the traverses, 
directed their musketry into the bomb-proofs, and fought with 
a desperation that o'ermatched that of the enemy. Thus, hand 
to hand, and from traverse to traverse, the fierce struggle con- 
tinued till nine o'clock, when the bastion was almost within 
reach. Bell had been killed, Pennypacker wounded. Curtis 
sent for reinforcements. Terry sent word to stop fighting, and 
entrench. Curtis, inflamed with rage, exclaimed: "Then we 
shall lose what we have gained. The enemy will drive us from 
here in the morning!" A shell struck him and he fell. Word 
was taken to Ames that Curtis was dead, and that his last 
words were, that the battle should go on. Ames thought so, 
too. Terry caught the inspiration, 
and hurried Abbott to the rescue. At 
sight of these fresh cohorts the Con- 
federates yielded the bastion, and Fort 
Fisher was carried. Wild, continuous 
cheers rent the night air. Curtis lived 
to hear the shouts of victory. The 
fleet burst into a blaze of rockets, and 
all the bands struck up the national 
airs. During the 16th and 17th, all 
the other defences of the Cape Fear 
river fell readily into Federal hands. 
Their losses were no killed and 536 wounded. The Confed- 
erate losses were 700 killed and wounded, 1971 prisoners, 169 
heavy guns, 2000 small arms, and all their supplies and ammu- 
nition. 

Terry moved at once against Wilmington, but was opposed 
by Hoke's command and compelled to wait for reinforcements. 
On February 15th, Schofield came from the West with his 
corps, and Grant gave him command in North Carolina. He 




GEN. TERRY. 



350 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

pushed matters with such energy, that, on February 22d, he had 
possession of Wilmington. And now, Grant mapped for him 
his future operations : " Move from Wilmington or Newbern on 
Goldsboro'. Get together rations and forage for sixty thousand 
men and twenty thousand animals. Protect all interior points 
you gain. The first object is to give Sherman material aid in 
his march north. The second is to open a base of supplies for 
him on his line of march. Sherman may be looked for in the 
neighborhood of Goldsboro' any day from February 22d to 
February 28th. This limits your time materially." 

One is almost ready to marvel at the masterly grasp of that 
mind which was thus making widely distant operations con- 
vergent and co-operative. For a whole year of command there 
had been scarcely a variation from Grant's original plans and 
purposes. So well matured were his judgments, so skillful his 
methods, that results were running, as bright seeds from the 
mill, in just the quantities and at the times calculated upon. 
There had been minor drawbacks, temporary checks, and pro- 
voking intermediate failures, but never for a moment did he 
run short of expedients to cure them, nor did he ever permit 
them to seriously wrench his plans, cloud his purposes, or di- 
minish his faith. This we have seen over and over again, from 
the " Wilderness " to the James, and around Petersburg. And 
we shall see it again and again until the end. It could be no 
more conspicuous than in the Fort Fisher affair. We have 
seen to what account he turned victory there. Sherman was 
coming north to meet him. His march would be through two 
hostile States. A strong enemy was centered in his path, 
operating from Wilmington, fed there by blockade runners, 
prospering there on rich traffic. The obstacle was formidable. 
Butler started in time, and under propitious circumstances, to 
remove the obstacle. He failed humiliatingly, and was promptly 
relieved from command. Time was precious. In less than 
twenty days Grant had another force on the scene, stronger 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



351 



and more determined than the first. It was victorious. By 
February 2 2d, Wilmington passed into Federal hands, and what 
would have been a part of Grant's own army, under Schofield, 
was in Sherman's path to help him on his northern march. 

Before returning to Petersburg, the reader must be asked to 
bear in mind the fact that Sherman has now reached the sea, 
has given Savannah to the President as a Christmas present, and 
is on his way through the Carolinas to co-operate with Grant 
We reserve the details of his wonderful campaign eastward and 
northward through the heart of the Confederacy for a chapter 
by itself. But henceforth all of Grant's movements must be 
interpreted by their bearing on Sherman's fortunes, or rather 
upon that fortune, common to both, which should spring from 
closer co-operation and possible junction of their forces. Sher- 
man was pushing Johnston ahead of him, or to be more accurate, 
Johnston was keeping ahead, hovering northward -of him, 
drifting back more and more on to the line of Lee's commu- 
nications, both for their protection, that Lee might retreat by 
them in case of an emergency, and with a view to joining the 
two armies. Once joined, they might hurriedly pounce on 
Sherman, or, retreating into the mountains, might render other 
campaigns necessary, and prolong the 
war for years. Do not forget, either, 
that Thomas had, before the end of the 
year, annihilated Hood's army in Ten- 
nessee, and virtually closed the war 
there. This enabled Schofield to come 
East with his corps. 

Through all these grand combina- 
tions the end was visible. The mighty 
Confederacy was staggering beneath 
blows it could not return, and writhing 
amid toils it could not shake off. It 
was discordant in its councils, and hopeless over the certainty 




GEN. HOOD. 



352 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

that the grasp would not relax, nor the will relent, nor the 
energy weaken, which had proved, from the beginning, so inde- 
fatigable and irresistible. 

Now, with Sherman moving northward, and certain to meet 
Schofield with a friendly army; with Sheridan back from his 
Staunton raid; with Thomas moving toward the railroad 
passes west of the Alleghenies ; with Stoneman off on another 
raid from Tennessee into the Carolinas and thence toward 
Lynchburg; with Lee's failure at Fort Stedman; — let us open 
Grant's spring campaign of 1865 in and around Petersburg. 
Previous to Lee's attack on Grant's entrenchments at Fort Sted- 
man, March 25th, he had called the attention of his government 
to the immense number of deserters from his army. This added 
to the dismay which existed. Lee attributed it to the discour- 
aging sentiment outside of the army. On Feb. 3d a Confede- 
rate Commission composed of Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. 
T. Hunter and J. A. Campbell had met President Lincoln and 
Secretary Seward at Hampton Roads to ascertain whether ne- 
gotiations for peace would be entertained in connection with 
some terms which might secure recognition of the Southern 
Confederacy. Their propositions were not agreed to, and, as 
Mr. Lincoln said, could not be " except on the basis of the dis- 
bandment of the insurgent forces and the recognition of the 
national authority throughout all the States of the Union." 
The President further said that " the complete restoration 
of the national authority everywhere was an indispensable 
condition to whatever form of peace might be proposed." 
Though Lee was not in sympathy with this Commission, he 
now, a month later, March 2d, 1865, wrote to Grant proposing 
an end of the controversy through a convention. Grant said 
he had no authority to accede. 

On March 23d, Sherman and Schofield met at Goldsboro'. 
On the 22d, Lincoln paid General Grant a visit at City Point. 
On the 25th, Sherman, leaving Schofield in command, arrived 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 



353 



also at City Point. Admiral Porter was there. On the 28th, 
Grant's little hut was crowded with an illustrious company, 
Meade, Ord, Sheridan and others having been invited. It was 
not a council of war, but a free talk which embraced the entire 
situation and resulted in a full understanding of Grant's pur- 




ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 



poses and the part each was to bear in advancing them. These 
he had formulated and issued to Meade on March 24th. Sher- 
man's first duty was to hold Johnston where he was, at 
Smithfield, or, if he moved, to demonstrate upon Raleigh, cross 
the Roanoke at Gaston, and move to Burkesville Junction 
of the Southside and Richmond and Danville railroads, or 
23 



354 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



join the Army of the Potomac as he might think best. 
Sheridan was to operate on Grant's left and be ready to 
aid Sherman if needed. Grant greatly feared that Lee would 
evacuate Petersburg and Richmond and escape capture. He 
felt sure that Sherman's crossing of the Roanoke would be 
the signal for him to leave. He had therefore a double 




GRANT'S HEADQUARTER'S. 



duty on hand; first, to retain and capture him; second, 
to be in position for hard and successful pursuit. He did 
not doubt that he would be equal to either task, and so 
shaped his movements. Lee was yet strong. His effectives 
on March 1st numbered sixty-three thousand. Grant had at 
his immediate disposal over one hundred thousand : sixty-nine 
thousand in the Army of the Potomac, twenty-seven thousand 
in the Army of the James, and thirteen thousand cavalry 
under Sheridan. 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 355 

The orders to Meade involved a move on March 29th, 
those to Sheridan one on the 28th. The latter was to move 
his cavalry far enough south to avoid contact with the enemy, 
then turn and pass to Dinwiddie Court House on the Boydton 
plank road, and thence operate northward and westward 
against the right and rear of the enemy. To support Sheri- 
dan, Meade was to make a westward movement, keeping well 
covered, and if possible extending his entrenchments. Parke 
and Wright were to hold in front of Petersburg, Ord was to 
relieve the Second Corps, now commanded by Humphreys, on 
the extreme left of the lines. On the morning of the 29th, 
Warren's Fifth and Humphrey's Second were to cross Hatchers' 
Run and march northwesterly, with four days' rations. 

Warren was in motion at 3 a. m., Humphreys at 6 a. m. At 
nine o'clock Grant left City Point for the scene of operations. 
The President wished him and his officers God speed, " Good- 
bye, gentlemen," he said, " God bless you all ; and remember 
your success is my success." The Federal extreme left ex~ 
tended to Hatchers' Run, and Ord held it. Both Warren and 
Humphreys crossed the run and swung northward. Hum- 
phreys did not disconnect his right from Ord, but turned on it, 
faced eastward, and stretched his left to Dabny's Mill. Warren 
marched further northward, connected with Humphrey's left, 
and extended his own to and beyond the Boydton plank near 
Burgess' Mill. Lee did not attack. The Federal front now 
reached from the Appomattox at Petersburg to Hatchers' Run, 
and thence northward to the Boydton plank. That evening 
Sheridan was at Dinwiddie, five miles westward. Grant sent 
him word : " Our line is now unbroken from Appomattox to 
Dinwiddie. We are all ready, however, to give up all from 
Jerusalem plank road to Hatchers' Run whenever the force 
can be used advantageously. ... / feel now like ending the 
matter, if it is possible to do so, before going back ... In the 
morning push round the enemy and get on his right rear. 



356 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

. . . We will all act together as one army until it is seen 
what can be done with the enemy." 

Heavy rains and bad roads almost stagnated operations. 
Officers and men were dejected. Some of the former sug- 
gested a return, and feared that Johnston might attack in the 
rear. " I wish he would," said Grant, " I would turn round 
and dispose of him and then be free to attack Lee." During 
the inaction Sheridan rode over from Dinwiddie to Grant's 
headquarters. He proved full of the spirit of battle, and re- 
turned with instructions to get possession of Five Forks 
within two miles of the Southside railroad. If this point 
were gained Lee could not remain in Petersburg. Warren 
now extended his left well across the Boydton plank. Sheridan 
pushed a division northward from Dinwiddie, but found the 
enemy in force at Five Forks. Humphreys drove the Con- 
federates close behind their entrenchments on Hatchers' Run. 
All the other corps commanders felt their fronts, and Wright 
and Parke said they could assault successfully. This was evi- 
dence that Lee had thrown his forces to his right. 

Grant now offered to detach the Fifth Corps (Warren's) and 
place it at Sheridan's disposal. Then an attack was to be 
made on the enemy, who were rapidly fortifying Five Forks. 
At the same time an assault should be made all along the en- 
trenchments. But Lee knew full well the importance of Five 
Forks to him, and was massing on the White Oak road to 
attack Warren's left. Warren was ordered to contract his 
lines and Sheridan notified to protect his rear. But Warren 
extended his lines, which were attacked on the morning of 
March 31st. Ayres' division was struck from the north and 
on its left flank and hurled suddenly back upon Crawford's 
division. The Confederates pressed on and forced both Ayres 
and Crawford upon Griffin, who fortunately held his men till 
the other two officers could reform behind him. Humphreys 
sent up Miles to Warren's aid, and the Confederate onset was 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 357 

stayed, but not till Warren's left had been driven a full mile. 
It was now the Federal turn to attack. Miles passed by War- 
ren's rear and, opening on the enemy's flank, drove him back. 
Grant moved his headquarters to the Boydton plank, ordered 
Warren and Humphreys to push the attack, and sent word to 
Sheridan to keep the enemy busy in his front, or to attack if 
opportunity offered. Warren moved, supported by Miles, 
over the ground he had lost and, driving the enemy behind 
his entrenchments, secured a foothold on the White Oak 
road. 

Lee had not only been moving infantry to his right to relieve 
it, but had organized an immense cavalry force under Pickett 
and given it the support of two infantry divisions, for the pur- 
pose of overwhelming Sheridan. On this same day, March 
31st, it was moving toward Dinwiddie. Sheridan pushed 
Merritt's and Crook's commands out to meet it, leaving Custer 
to guard the rear and the roads connecting with Meade. The 
Confederates attacked at ten o' clock, with cavalry. Their 
charge upon Crook was made with fearful earnestness, but was 
gallantly repulsed with a loss to them of five hundred men. 
Pickett withdrew and then massed for an attack on Merritt's 
line. He forced back Davies' brigade, and detached it from 
its command. It fought its way to the rear, and there reformed. 
Pickett became too intent on his advantage and exposed his 
flank, which Sheridan attacked with Gibbes' and Gregg's 
forces. This relieved Merritt. The Federal lines now fell 
back in good order, fighting dismounted, before great odds of 
combined cavalry and infantry, till they reached the slight 
breastworks they had previously thrown up in front of Din- 
widdie. 

Sheridan informed Grant of his position, of the strong force 
in his front, and that his losses had been four hundred and fifty 
men killed and wounded. Grant instantly determined to con- 
vert Sheridan's defensive into an offensive attitude. He ordered 



35§ LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Warren to draw in his left to the Boydton plank, and send a 
division down the road to Sheridan's aid. The move was 
most important, for the Confederates were outside of their 
fortifications, and would be struck in flank. Warren suggested 
the taking of his entire corps along, and Grant assented, but 
the movement must be completed by morning. Warren was 
cautious and slow. His aggressive vigor was not equal to 
quick emergencies, though brave in action and splendid in 
field movement, where time could be given and the spaces 
were not too contracted. Grant grew anxious and urgent. 
He spent the whole night in hearing from Meade, Sheridan, 
and Warren, and in issuing stirring orders how to co-operate 
for attack, and what to do in case Sheridan had to fall back in 
the morning. Still Warren was delaying, and the suspense 
became almost unendurable. Daylight of April 1st was on, 
and only Ayres' division was sufficiently advanced to be of 
assistance to Sheridan. He, however, decided to advance, 
with the hope that Warren would be along soon. He did so, 
and Pickett's entire force fell back in the direction of Five 
Forks, followed by Merritt and Crook. Ayres met the pur- 
suing cavalry two miles up the Boydton road, but Pickett had 
slipped out in time to avoid the infantry blow on his flank, and 
made himself secure behind the entrenchments at Five Forks. 
Sheridan learned that Griffin's division of the Fifth was close 
behind Ayres', and that Crawford's division might be expected 
soon. Grant had placed the entire corps under his (Sheridan's) 
orders. He, therefore, halted the advance divisions where they 
were on the Boydton road, with orders to wait till Crawford 
came up, and then to be prepared to take the roads leading off 
the Boydton plank toward Five Forks (so named from the 
intersection of five main roads there). None knew better than 
Sheridan the advantage of Five Forks to Lee, and none shared 
to a greater extent Grant's desire to capture this place. When 
Grant had said to Sheridan, " I mean to end the business right 



SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 359 

here," some such point as Five Forks must have instinctively 
flashed across both their m inds. At any rate, it was now a key to a 
situation which involved the fate of the Confederate army. It 
was right under the Southside railroad, would command that 
road and all the rearward of Petersburg, would give Grant the 
line of the Appomattox, would force Lee to the north of that 
river, and perhaps even the James, with still more precarious 
communications westward. It seldom occurs in warfare that a 
place so unimportant in itself becomes so conspicious and pivo- 
tal. The fortune of Lee, the fate of his army, the future of the 
Confederacy, hung upon the possession of a cross-road centre 
that had never before been honored with even so much as a 
spot upon the map. Grant's superb leadership, untiring zeal, 
and constancy of purpose, had centralized the war so that the 
field of action which was, a year before, as wide as the conti- 
nent, was now reduced to a single point, and the result of four 
years of sacrifice, hung upon the issue of a battle for a country 
village. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 

AT the end of Chapter XVIII. we saw Pickett's combined 
infantry and cavalry force fall back (April 1st) from 
Dinwiddie to Five Forks. This was necessary in order to 
avoid an attack on their left flank by Warren, who was ordered 
to move by the Boydton plank-road to Dinwiddie and to 
Sheridan's support. Warren came tardily and Pickett escaped 
the contemplated blow on his left. It will be remembered 
that the Fifth Corps (Warren's) was placed at Sheridan's entire 
disposal. When he met Ayres' division coming and found 
that Griffin and Crawford were following, he halted them 
where they were on the Boydton plank and left the entire 
corps under orders to take the side roads toward Five Forks 
when called. 

Sheridan then pursued Pickett till he brought up within the 
fortifications at Five Forks which were, by this time, veiy 
strong and well manned. The restless and audacious cavalry- 
man now conceived a scheme by which he hoped to make the 
place his own. It was past noon, and all effort must be 
prompt. He had discovered that the Five Forks fortifications 
stopped a mile east of the place and then turned northward. 
This left a gap between them and the Petersburg defences. 
He hurried Mackenzie with one thousand eight hundred 
troopers beyond this gap to check any reinforcements Lee 
might send. Then dashing to his centre and left, he estab- 
lished Merritt well in front of the enemy's works, which ex- 
tended about two miles, with Five Forks just back of their 
360 






FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 36 1 

centre, and gave him orders to make a vigorous feint on Pickett's 
right centre, as if to turn his right. Whirling again to the 
right he ordered Warren, who at noon reported to him in per- 
son, to move up his corps upon the enemy's left, and attack. 
Warren worked all too deliberately for the impatient Sheridan. 
It was five o'clock before he was up and in position, and 
already Merritt was vigorously engaged on the enemy's front 
and right. Mackenzie's mission eastward on the White Oak 
road had proved most timely. He had met a strong reinforce- 
ment coming out from Petersburg and, falling upon it, had 
driven it back. Warren formed with Crawford on the right, 
Ayres on the left and Griffin in support. The direct object of 
assault was the angle in the Confederate fortifications, where 
they turned off and ran northward. This was to be taken 
and destroyed before the troops holding it could be reinforced 
by those from the right and opposite Merritt. Ayres and 
Crawford moved briskly to the attack over miry, difficult 
ground. Sheridan and his staff rode between their skirmishers 
and regular lines. Ayres was received with a heavy fire before 
he reached the White Oak road. His left wavered, and in 
shifting his front to keep his lines straight his right lost its 
connection with Crawford. Two regiments broke entirely, 
but Sheridan rode into the midst of the faltering troops and 
re-established the columns. 

Merritt heard the firing and made his assault on the enemy's 
front and right more direct and furious. Crawford had crossed 
the White Oak road and gotten too far north to be of service 
in the onset upon the angle. Ayres therefore had to bear the 
brunt of it. Griffin had unfortunately followed Crawford with 
his supporting division. It was a critical moment, and Sheri- 
dan sent for Warren, who was with Crawford. He did not 
come promptly; and Sheridan, full of the enthusiasm of battle, 
rode everywhere among Ayres' men, steadying the lines and 
inspiring prompt and daring action. Seeing a flag fall, he 



362 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

picked it up and plunged into the charge with it, shouting to 
the amazed infantrymen to " Come on." Somewhere back of 
the lines a band struck up a rollicking Irish air, and other bands 
took it up. The troops caught the spirit of it. Ayres and 
his staff rushed to where Sheridan was dashing about and 
cheering the lines, unmindful of lead that was riddling flags 
and striking down brave officers and men about them. 

Such an example spread like contagion. The men rushed 
ahead with wilder impetuosity, swarmed up and over the 
fire flashing parapets, grappled with the gunners, seized 
the standards, and captured one thousand five hundred 
prisoners, an entire brigade. Facing westward inside of the 
angle, Ayres now prepared to roll Pickett's flank in upon his 
centre. Both Griffin and Crawford had heard the sound of 
battle and had even caught the cheers of the victorious Fed- 
erals. They knew they were too far beyond the point of 
attack to be of service. Wheeling their commands and facing 
southwestward, they charged toward the centre of the fray. 
Griffin struck the enemy first and just to the north and right 
of Ayres. He swept away their skirmishers, broke over 
their entrenchments, and swiftly captured one thousand five 
hundred more prisoners. Crawford had really passed beyond 
the line of the enemy's north and south entrenchments, so 
that when he wheeled southwestward he struck an open flank, 
and almost an unprotected rear. Pushing his advantage with 
determined vigor, he threw all before him into confusion, and 
captured two guns and many prisoners. Mackenzie swung 
back with his cavalry and kept on Crawford's right. This 
threw him well into Pickett's rear, where he picked up prison- 
ers by the hundred. 

After Ayres formed inside the entrenchments for a charge 
westward, he was halted by Sheridan, lest he might interfere 
with the work of Merritt's cavalry toward the centre and left. 
Merritt had been doing splendid work all along the enemy's 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 



363 



front. Instead of simply engaging in a feint, he had assaulted 
in dead earnest and with such impetuosity as to capture the 
entrenchments in many places. He had even broken through 
close to where Ayres was, and connected with him. 

Here the sound of Crawford's battle up to the north told 
that he was coming, and that too on the flank and rear of the 
enemy. Warren had him and Griffin in hand and was work- 
ing the two divisions with his old time energy and certainty. 
Darkness was coming on. A victory had been won. But the 
situation was one which, if taken advantage of suddenly, 
would greatly magnify that victory. Pickett's right was hold- 
ing stubbornly. The rest of his columns were falling back 
on Five Forks. Crawford's sweep was bringing him even to 
the north of Five Forks. Warren was atoning for every 
delay by urging the division forward with all the speed the 
men could muster. He was meeting with resolute opposition, 
and his horse was shot. Almost 
at this juncture he received orders 
from Sheridan relieving him from 
command. His tardiness, mis- 
take in direction, and failure to 
communicate with Sheridan, had 
inflamed that officer, and he wrote 
the hasty and severe order so as to 
put an end to further error and con- 
fusion. Perhaps the remedy was 
too heroic. If slow, there never 
was a braver and truer man than 
Warren, and he was afterward exonerated from blame by a 
court of inquiry. 

Griffin pushed past Ayres' right and in the direction of Five 
Forks. Merritt drove every advantage he had gained. 
Pickett's right broke from its cover, and now his whole line 
was in retreat, with Merritt stretched clear along what was its 




GEN. WARREN 



364 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

front and Griffin crowding in upon and rolling up its left flank. 
Pickett strove bravely to hold the Forks, but Merritt was on 
his right and front again before he could reform, and Griffin 
crushed his left, absolutely breaking up his forces and dis- 
persing them in all directions. Merritt's cavalry had all along 
fought dismounted, but now all that could be accommodated 
with horses were mounted and sent in pursuit of the flying 
enemy, the main part of which was escaping by westward and 
northward roads. Griffin picked up all who fled by the White 
Oak road, and Crawford and Mackenzie those who fled by the 
Ford road. When Griffin reached Five Forks he was given 
command of the Fifth Corps, The pursuit was kept up for 
six miles and till long after dark. 

The battle of Five Forks was grandly tactical, and was 
planned and fought inside of eight hours, both the place and 
moment being of vast importance. Materially it netted six 
thousand prisoners and six guns, with the dispersion of a force 
nearly equal to one-third of Lee's army, while the Federal 
losses did not exceed one thousand killed and wounded. 
Morally it had a wonderfully inspiring effect on Grant's army 
and the country. It was a most auspicious opening of his 
spring campaign, and in enviable contrast with Lee's attempt 
on Ft. Stedman a few days before. History cannot undertake 
to measure its grewsome effects on Lee and the Confederacy, 
who saw the environment of Petersburg now complete and all 
westward ingress and egress cut off. Pickett managed to 
rally a few thousand of his men north of Hatchers' Run, but on 
that night of April 1st, 1865, Sheridan's troopers and the worn- 
out Fifth bivouacked in and around the now famous Five 
Forks, and the former sent his couriers through the darkness 
of night and forest to carry the glad tidings to Grant at Dab- 
ney's Mill, that he might transmit them to the President yet at 
City Point. 

Grant was sitting in front of his tent wrapped in the blue 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 365 

overcoat of a private, when suddenly his ears were greeted 
with the cheers of the soldiery. Far off in the dark woods, a 
courier was hurrying toward headquarters, and as he passed 
the camps they caught up the brief words of victory he let 
fall, and wafted them through the night air to all the camps 
and forests and hills. Another officer came, and still a third, 
in quick succession, each a bearer of completer news, each rush- 
ing upon the General with a gladder and more excited story 
of victory. He was the one calm, unmoved man in the midst 
of a throng which was wild with joy and clamorous amid 
exultation. It was after eight o'clock at night. Rising, 
he went within the tent for a moment, then appearing, 
he handed a slip of paper to an orderly, remarking to those 
around, " It is a windy night. I have ordered an immediate 
assault all along the lines." To the President he dispatched, 
" Sheridan has carried everything before him. I have ordered 
everything else to advance to prevent a concentration against 
him." 

It was a night of jubilee in the Army of the Potomac. From 
Hatchers' Run far around Petersburg and up to and across the 
James the soldiers poured from their tents, bivouacs and 
bomb proofs and caught and echoed the glorious tidings. The 
bands played for hours. At midnight the deep-mouthed 
cannon along those miles of fortifications belched forth in 
furious bombardment and kept it up till 4 a. m., the hour fixed 
for a general movement of the corps. 

Even the day before, Grant had notified all the corps com- 
manders to stand ready to move, for he was determined to 
intercept any effort Lee might make to strengthen Pickett, as 
well as to keep Sheridan sufficiently supported to win a 
victory. The responses that came from the different corps 
were hearty and pleasing. They were ready and anxious 
either to attack their fronts or go off to Sheridan's aid. Grant's 
instructions to Meade were detailed and covered his two lead- 



366 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ing points of anxiety, first, lest Lee should escape ; and 
second, lest in escaping he should strike and overwhelm 
Sheridan. Therefore Meade was to push the assaults wherever 
ground was gained, and so dispose his forces as to make them 
successful. A prompt beginning was urged; for, said he, 
" My own opinion is you will have no enemy confronting you 
in the morning. You may find them leaving now. I do not 
wish you to fight your way over difficult barriers against 
defensive lines. I want you to see though, if the enemy is 
leaving, and if so, follow him up." 

And immediately after he wrote : " Start Miles down White 
Oak road to Sheridan, and let the Second Corps follow." 
Then to Sheridan : " An attack is ordered for four in the 
morning at three points on the Petersburg front ; one by the 
Ninth Corps between the Appomattox and Jerusalem plank, 
one west of the Weldon road, a third between that and 
Hatchers' Run." Then followed orders to take and hold the 
Southside railroad. But Sheridan had already proposed to 
march eastward by the White Oak road, in order to attack 
any help Lee might be sending to Pickett. 

But Lee did not reinforce Pickett. He probably anticipated 
Grant's assault and kept his men in the fortifications. He was 
still forty thousand strong and well protected. He was the 
Confederacy's only hope, and that hope would vanish in an 
open field. Yet he had heard from Five Forks, and was dazed. 
His right had been suddenly cut off from his centre and beaten 
and dismembered. He did not even call Longstreet from 
North of the James at this supreme moment. 

At 4 a. m. on the morning of April 2d, Wright and Parke 
began the assault. Humphreys waited to hear from the right 
of the lines. Wright formed his Sixth in three divisions, with 
five batteries and a corps of pioneers and sharpshooters, and 
then began to move. Imprudent pickets commenced firing in 
advance, which drew stunning volleys upon the massed troops, 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 367 

who, nevertheless, retained their places and preserved quiet. 
By 4.40 the columns were under way in the morning twilight. 
They broke over the enemy's picket lines, and made their way 
amid a deadly musketry and artillery fire toward the parapets 
beyond. Abattis were cut away and the columns surged on. 
The enemy opposed gallantly, but finally went down before the 
impetuous and solid Federals. Wright gained the whole line 
of entrenchments in front of his corps. 

Parke assaulted along the Jerusalem plank road. He 
formed with two assaulting columns, Hartranft on the right 
of the road and Potter on the left. Wilcox was to demon- 
strate further to the right, which he did so effectually as to 
break through the entrenchments and draw a heavy attack 
upon him from within. Parke's two columns moved steadily 
forward to the assault The pioneers rushed ahead cutting 
abattis and warpings. The fire from cannon, mortars and 
muskets was concentrated and incessant. Yet the columns 
surged ahead, resolutely, confidently, till they struck the works, 
over which they poured, capturing twelve pieces of artillery 
and eight hundred prisoners. Wheeling to the right they 
drove the enemy from traverse to traverse, till an entire salient 
was in their possession. Turning the captured guns on the 
strong inner lines, they made a gallant attempt to capture them, 
but the resistance was too stubborn. Potter fell wounded. It 
was now daylight, and they turned their attention to making 
secure what they had captured. The inner line of Confederate 
works enveloped Petersburg, so that, despite the brilliant suc- 
cesses of the morning, the city was not yet in Federal hands. 

As soon as Grant heard of these successes, he ordered 
Ord to send all his spare troops to Wright's assistance, and 
Humphreys to advance and " feel for a soft place in the 
entrenchments on Hatchers' Run." Sheridan was ordered to 
close in from the west, with his cavalry and the Fifth Corps 
and Miles' division of the Second. The President was notified 



368 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

of the situation, and, taking in the whole field, orders flew 
hither and thither to watch, to concentrate, to feint, to support, 
to push attack. Not a position nor command escaped the 
attention of that controlling and ordering mind, and not a 
possibility became barren till effectually tried. 

The time had now come for Ord and Humphreys to move. 
Ord found a comparatively defenceless front and readily pos- 
sessed himself of the entrenchments. Humphreys found 
stouter opposition, but by eight o'clock Hays' division carried 
a redoubt and captured three guns and the garrison. Mott's 
division pushed up the Boydton road, but found the enemy's 
lines evacuated. The outer barriers were now well broken, 
and there was a terrible concentration of troops on the inner 
circle. It was now a continuous battle field from Petersburg 
to Hatchers' Run, from Hatchers' Run up to the Boydton plank, 
and thence to Five Forks. Everything, infantry and cavalry, 
was in motion, and all intent on Petersburg, and on Lee should 
he be there. 

Grant rode well to the front to direct operations. It required 
his disciplinary mind to save confusion among the now concen- 
trating and overlapping corps. He spurred over the broken 
works and met a troop of three thousand prisoners captured 
by Wright's Sixth. Galloping on, his presence inspired the 
men to more heroic effort, and their lusty cheers assured him 
that they were filled with the spirit of final and glorious vic- 
tory. " Forward, Wright, and Ord, and Humphreys ! Hold, 
Parke!" This would sweep both sides of the Boydton plank, 
the direct road into Petersburg. Grant's position was a half 
mile inside of the outer entrenchments and under fire. But so 
anxious was he to witness the result of his last orders that 
discretion was laid aside for the time being. At length, being 
admonished, he remarked : " The enemy seem to have the 
range of this place. Suppose we ride away." He again tele- 
graphed the President, describing the situation, concluding, 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 369 

"We are closing around the works of the city immediately 
enveloping Petersburg. All looks remarkably well." 

The wreck of Lee's army was simply terrible. His left 
under Gordon had been driven from its outer stronghold by 
Parke ; his centre under Hill had been crushed by Wright ; 
Heth and Wilcox on his right had been cut off by Ord and 
Humphreys. Pickett tried to get back to the army by way of 
Sutherland Junction, but, meeting the fugitives from Heth and 
Wilcox, wheeled and crossed to the north of the Appomattox 
at Exeter's Mill. Sheridan was closing in along the White 
Oak road. Lee's lines had been, as he said, " stretched till 
they broke." 

It must have been despairing work for the Confederate 
commander to organize for the defence of his inner lines and 
perhaps to save his army from capture or irretrievable ruin. 
Yet he strove hard to stay the victorious tide. Longstreet 
was ordered from the North side of the James, in anticipation 
of which Grant had sent word to Weitzel to assault his front 
as soon as he found it weakened. Gordon was ordered to 
force back Parke. Hill, Mahone, Lee himself, and all others 
were busy in gathering the broken 
regiments and patching up new com- 
mands. At twenty minutes to eleven 
he sent word to Richmond : " I see 
no prospect of doing more than hold- 
ing on here till night; I am not certain 1 
I can do that." 1| 

President Davis sat in his accus- ^ 
tomed church on that Sabbath morn- 
ing, April 2d, 1865. A messenger 
entered and handed him a letter. It GEN - EWELL ' 

was Lee's dispatch. He read it hurriedly, rose and left the 
church The minister announced that the local forces had 

been called upon to assemble, and dismissed the congrega- 
24 





3/0 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

tion. It was followed by another dispatch stating that he 
(Lee) would have to fall back north of the Appomattox as the 
only means of forming a connection with the forces cut off 
from him, and advising that all preparations be made to leave 
Richmond that night. A third came at five minutes of five, " I 
think the Danville road will be safe till to-morrow." That 
evening Davis and his cabinet fled by railway and canal, and 
shortly after Ewell withdrew the garrison, burning ware- 
houses, bridges and public stores, and leaving no one to guard 
the helpless thousands against the excited mob to which dis- 
aster invariably gives birth. 

By noon of April 2d, Lee seemed to have recovered himself 
sufficiently to make an offensive demonstration on the position 
held by Parke on either side of the Jerusalem plank. There 
were several determined efforts to retake the lost works here, 
all of which were repulsed with heavy loss. Parke's position 
was the closest to Petersburg, and really threatened the bridge 
over the Appomattox, by which Lee hoped to retreat. The en- 
veloping Federal corps swept in closer and closer from the 
west. The Sixth and the Twenty-Fourth moved rapidly to 
connect with the Ninth. Humphreys had extended his left 
till it almost reached the Appomattox. Before their irresistible 
sweep every outer work of the enemy fell except two command- 
ing redoubts, Fort Gregg and Fort Baldwin. At one o'clock, 
Ord prepared to storm Fort Gregg, with Turner's and Foster's 
brigades. Three hundred veteran gunners manned the parapets. 
They fought bravely, and several times repulsed the assaulting 
forces. At last the parapet was gained, and then ensued a 
hand to hand conflict which ended with surrender. Fifty were 
found dead in the fort, and two hundred and fifty were 
captured. Fort Baldwin was at once evacuated. The inner 
line of defences was now all that stood between Grant and 
Petersburg. 

Sheridan, who was supposed to be covering all the Federal 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 371 

left, and coming eastward with the victorious forces, found some- 
thing in the rear to attend to. The enemy's cavalry turned up 
in force beyond Hatchers' Run and would prove troublesome 
unless attended to. He therefore held a large part of the Fifth 
with him and dispersed the foe gathering in the rear. Then 
marching north from Five Forks to the Southside railroad, he 
turned eastward toward Sutherland's Station, where he arrived 
in time to help Miles, who had attacked a strong covered posi- 
tion and been twice repulsed. Hearing that Sheridan was ap- 
proaching, the gallant Miles repeated the strategy of Five Forks, 
struck the enemy's flank while making a demonstration in front, 
and swept his entire line of fortifications, capturing nine hun- 
dred and fifty prisoners and two guns. This action gave the 
Federals control of the Southside railroad at Sutherland's 
Station, a point which Lee had ordered to be held at all haz- 
ards. Grant gave Miles warm personal praise for gaining this 
victory and important railroad point. 

The momentous day wears away amid this surge and con- 
centration of forces under the watchful supervision of that 
central and superbly controlling mind. Weitzel, above the 
James, is notified not to attack his front now. " Everything is 
going well here, and in a day or two I will be able to send you 
all the troops necessary." Sherman is written to, the situation 
explained, and he is directed to graduate his movements ac- 
cordingly. The anxious President at City Point is not forgot- 
ten. He is notified at half past four : " We are up now, have a 
continuous line of troops, and in a few hours will be entrenched 
from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the river above." 
And the President is invited out to see him to-morrow. The 
reply came : "Allow me to tender to you, and all of you, the 
nation's grateful thanks for the additional and magnificient suc- 
cess ; at your suggestion I think I will meet you to-morrow." 

Evening of April 2d came on. Sheridan had forced every 
trace of Confederate troops north of the Appomattox, and was 



372 LIFE OF ULYSSES S, GRANT. 

covering the rear to the river. The rest had been forced inside 
the inner lines of Petersburg. The investment of those lines 
was complete. Should they be attacked at once? If captured, 
Lee would have to surrender, for he could not possibly get his 
army over the Appomattox in time to save it. But if not 
captured, then he could escape, for the Federals could not, in 
the face of discomfiture, make successful pursuit. Meade and 
other officers favored immediate assault. But the troops had 
been eighteen hours on their feet and in heavy action. Grant 
felt this, and also knew that an assault must be attended with 
great and unnecessary loss, for he was convinced that Lee had 
made up his mind to abandon the works very soon, and per- 
haps that night. He therefore did not order an assault on the 
2d, but disposed his forces so that half of them should be 
ready for prompt pursuit, and the rest for attack, if need be, in 
the morning. 

Sheridan was ordered to cross to the north side of the Appo- 
mattox and be governed by the enemy's movements. Hum- 
phreys was held in readiness to cross to his support. Word 
went to both, "All we want is to capture or beat the enemy." 
Grant was judging well, he had been too long in front of Lee 
not to know what his tactics would be in such an emergency. 
Already word was coming in which sustained his view r s. By 
nine o'clock at night Sheridan reported it as his opinion that 
all the enemy's forces outside of Petersburg were attempting to 
escape his way ; and Grant sent to Meade his thoughts that 
already Gordon's corps was the only one left in Petersburg. 
He therefore suggested an assault at six on the morning of the 
3d, but only in case the enemy were really found to be leaving. 
Parke was directed to use his heavy artillery against the Ap- 
pomattox bridge, for " If we can hit the bridge once it will 
pay." 

The fact was Lee had been preparing to evacuate all day, 
had been sending word to the Confederate authorities in Rich- 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 373 

mond to make their escape, and at 7 p. m. he had sent his 
last dispatch, his full confession, his plans. " It is absolutely 
necessary that we should abandon our position to-night or run 
the risk of being cut off in the morning. I have given all the 
orders to officers on both sides of the river, and have taken 
every precaution that I can to make the movement successful. 
It will be a difficult operation, but I hope not impracticable. 
The troops will be directed to Amelia Court House." Amelia 
Court House is on the Richmond and Danville railroad, south 
of the Appomattox. 

It will be seen from this notable dispatch how accurately 
Grant was reading Lee's mind, and divining his intentions. It 
was not even late on that night of April 2d, when Lee's right 
struck Sheridan's advance above the Appomattox, and fifteen 
miles from Petersburg, and when the forces from Richmond, 
and in front of Bermuda Hundred were on the move. Pickett 
had gathered up his stragglers further west, and was making 
a formidable vanguard for the army, in the direction of Amelia 
Court House. Lee's object was to reach Johnston's army, now 
massed at Smithfield, N. C, one hundred and fifty miles away. 
The first point to be made was Burkesville Junction of the 
Richmond and Danville and Southside railroads, fifty miles from 
Richmond. Thither Johnston might be able to come ; at least 
Lee could connect with him from that place. But the great 
gathering point would be Amelia Court House, due west from 
Richmond, yet beyond the Appomattox, which would have to 
be crossed. Neither army had much advantage in distance, 
but Lee's would of course have several hours start, and the 
quickening inducement of flight. 

After burying General A. P. Hill, who had fallen in the 
morning, the Confederate chieftain sadly took his position out 
at the junction of the Amelia and Richmond roads, and watched 
his dejected troops file by in midnight retreat. From ten 
o'clock till three in the morning, a steady stream of discomfited 



374 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

men poured silently forth from all the strong places they had 
built, and defended for nearly a year. Then the bridges across 
the Appomattox, within Petersburg, burst into a blaze. The 
stores and magazines throughout all that vast line of works 
from Petersburg to Deep Bottom, and up the fortified front to 
Richmond, were shattered and destroyed by thunderous explo- 
sions. 

And all night the vigilant Federals were feeling the enemy's 
front to see what he was doing. His pickets, of course, kept 
up the disguise till the very last moment. The explosions in 
Petersburg prompted Parke to try his front seriously. At 
4 a. m. of April 3d, he made a general movement, readily cap- 
tured the remaining pickets and skirmishers, and in half an 
hour, Ely's division was in the heart of the city, and that officer 
had accepted its formal surrender. The Sixth Corps advanced, 
and the authorities surrendered to Wright also. There was a 
rush to the burning bridges, and after great effort, one was 
saved. A heavy skirmish line was at once thrown across the 
river, and many stragglers were captured. 

Meade notified Grant of the surrender of the town, at five 
o'clock. Word came instantly, " March immediately with your 
army up the Appomattox, taking the river road, leaving one 
division to hold Petersburg and the railroad." And then to 
Sheridan, "Petersburg has fallen. Push to the Danville road 
with all speed, with Humphreys and Griffin, as well as cavalry." 
And then to Ord, " Push southwest with your command, by 
the Cox road. Enemy evidently moving toward Danville. The 
Army of the Potomac will push up the river road." And to 
the President, " Petersburg evacuated last night. Pursuit will 
be made immediately." 

And yet not a corps nor command was moving in direct 
pursuit. That would have been to march through Petersburg, 
to cross the Appomattox to the north, and then recross again 
wherever Lee crossed. It would have been to tread on Lee's 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 375 

heels at an immense disadvantage as to time and distance. 
Lee had to cross, and most likely at Goode's or Bevil's bridges. 
The pursuit should, therefore, be by sticking to the south side 
of the Appomattox, and by effort to intercept him at the cross- 
ings. Therefore, the whole Federal army was whirled west- 
ward, and most of it never saw the inside of the Petersburg 
fortifications. Weitzel was notified to march into Richmond, 
which he did at 8.15 of April 3d, making large captures of 
guns and undestroyed materials, and finding the city on fire in 
many places, which his soldiers helped to extinguish. 

At nine o'clock, Grant rode into Petersburg to look on the 
sad, deserted scene, and pick up information from citizens and 
prisoners respecting Lee. By twelve, word came from Sher- 
idan that his cavalry was pressing the enemy's trains within 
nine miles of Namozine Creek, and that he would push to the 
Danville road as soon as possible. Grant's reply was to the 
effect that Lee must be intercepted, and Burkesville secured 
and held ; that it was evidently the enemy's intention to hold 
the road between Lynchburg and Danville; and that if Lee 
got to Danville, Burkesville would be the point from which 
to direct operations against him. Then the President came 
up from City Point to hear from Grant's own lips of the oper- 
ations of the previous day, and his plans for the immediate future. 

The capture of Richmond, which had all along been so 
supreme an object, was lost sight of in the midst of efforts to 
capture Lee's army. True, the country received with over- 
whelming joy the announcement that " Richmond is taken," 
and it saw rightly in its fall the sure beginning of a welcome 
end, for the Confederate capital stood for the Confederacy in 
the minds of those unused to the study of military situations. 
But the Federal army saw something far more momentous in 
the fall of Petersburg, and they now had in view something 
more glorious still, the capture and surrender of the organized 
power of the Confederacy, and the absolute end of the war. 



376 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Lee was pushing all his forces for Amelia Court House by 
three roads. Should they combine there, he would still have 
a formidable army of perhaps fifty thousand men. It is said, 
his spirits rose greatly after daylight on the 3d, when he saw 
his men swinging along with such a good lead of the Federals. 
He was evidently counting on Grant's following him directly, 
and on the opportunity this would give for occasionally turn- 
ing around, and beating back his van. But he had forgotten 
the manner of man with whom he had to deal. Grant did not 
let armies escape him. His pursuits were always unrelenting, 
and his tactics most brilliant when a foe thought to out- 
manoeuvre him. He knew men and divined situations too 
well to be thrown off his guard now by any ingenious by-play 
of a beaten and retreating enemy. His columns were all in 
motion as he had directed, on the south side of the Appomat- 
tox, Sheridan in advance with the cavalry, then Griffin with 
the Fifth, then Meade with Humphreys and Wright, while!. Ord 
marched direct for Burkesville. 

Everywhere Sheridan found evidences of the haste and 
demoralization of the enemy, in abandoned guns and accoutre- 
ments. During the day he picked up fifteen hundred prisoners. 
At Deep Creek he came upon a body of Confederate infantry, 
posted to head off his march, but they were quickly routed. 
By night the Fifth encamped at Deep Creek, the Second a few 
miles behind at Namozine Church, and the remaining corps, 
with Grant and Meade at Sutherland's Station. Sherman's 
situation now became important. During the day Grant sent 
him a full account of affairs, and specific directions how to 
operate, not only so as to assure his own safety, but so as to 
co-operate most effectively with the Army of the Potomac. 
The battle fields of Virginia and North Carolina were fast becom- 
ing one. If Lee should succeed in joining Johnston, the armed 
enemy would be one. Therefore, Sherman and Grant should be 
one, if not by real junction, at least in hearty cooperative spirit. 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 377 

By daylight of April 4th, all the Federal troops were in mo- 
tion again. They were to strike the Richmond and Danville 
road at Jetersville, six miles south of Amelia Court House 
where Lee's van was now supposed to be, and where it was 
understood he would stop to concentrate. He had expected 
also to find rations there. But they were not there, and could not 
be now, for soon Sheridan and the Fifth Corps were at Jetersville, 
cutting off all access to Burkesville and Danville. When Lee 
found this out he entrenched his lines and sent out foraging parties 
to gather supplies for the hungry, many of which were captured. 

Sheridan ordered Griffin to entrench also at Jetersville, and 
when he was well fixed on both sides of the railroad he sent 
word to Grant that he had intercepted Lee. Instantly the word 
flew to Meade and the corps commanders, and although Meade 
was sick and in a soldier's bed, he arose full of the spirit of the 
exciting occasion, and issued a soldierly call to his officers and 
men to bear the fatigue of long and rapid marching and the 
hardship of a scanty fare a little longer, with the assurance that 
the desperate contest must speedily and triumphantly termi- 
nate. It was the night of the 4th, and long before morning of 
the 5th, Wright and Humphreys were on the march without 
rations, bound for Jetersville. Ord stopped that night at Wil- 
son's on the Southside railroad, and expected to reach Burks- 
ville by a forced march on the 5th. Grant was with him, and 
on the 5th further notified Sherman of the situation, saying 
that Lee's objective was evidently Danville, and that he (Sher- 
man) should prepare to strike; " Rebel armies are now the only 
strategic points to strike at." When he reached Nottaway, 
within ten miles of Burkesville, he received word from Sheridan 
that Lee's entire army was at Amelia Court House, and that 
Davies had struck his right flank at Painesville and captured 
six pieces of artillery. " We can capture the army of Northern 
Virginia if force enough is thrown to this point and then ad- 
vance upon it." 



378 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

It was a day of hard marches, but the men were cheerful, 
even though their rations were slim and uncertain. By night- 
fall Humphreys' Second was well in position on the left of 
Griffin's Fifth, and a space was left on the right for Wright's 
Sixth as soon as it arrived. Meade was quite ill and left the 
arrangement of the troops to Sheridan, who was most anxious 
to tempt Lee to attack the position held by Humphreys, for 
his cavalry demonstrations on Lee's right, as far out as Paines- 
ville, told him that the Confederate leader intended to escape 
further westward by a flank movement. Meade was conserva- 
tive and did not want to expose Humphreys, whose position 
was not strong, to attack till Wright's Sixth came up and got 
position. Meade, of course, had his way, but Sheridan sent an 
appealing message to Grant to come and look at the situation 
himself, and then stated his fears that Lee would escape west- 
ward and not stand to fight at Amelia unless promptly attacked. 

Grant immediately started from Nottaway with his staff for 
a night journey (night of April 5th) of twenty miles to Jeters-- 
ville. It was a dangerous trip over muddy roads, through deep 
forests, under the escort of a guide whose loyalty was not ex- 
actly trusted. He found Sheridan in a high state of excitement 
over the prospective escape of Lee and the failure to draw a 
battle the day before. Grant heard his description of the situa- 
tion without show of emotion, and having learned that Wright's 
Sixth had gotten into position on Meade's right, the evening 
before at six, he notified Ord to move west from Burkesville 
in the morning and hold the railroad between that point and 
Farmville. He then ordered Meade, whose disposition of forces 
contemplated a movement by his right on Lee's left, to be 
ready to pursue Lee westward early in the -morning, or to 
attack if he were still in front. 

Not content with these orders, Grant went to see Meade in 
person, stated the situation to him, and fuller than ever of the 
belief that Lee had no intention of fighting where he was, but 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 379 

would not even be found there in the morning, he directed 
Meade to move westward by his left flank at daylight. And 
then he urged the necessity of promptitude, since Sheridan's 
cavalry had the day before made captures of artillery and 
wagon trains well out toward Painesville, and had struck a 
heavy body of the enemy in that direction. Though Meade's 
previous orders were thus modestly changed or overruled, he 
responded with true soldierly alacrity, and by daylight his en- 
tire army was in motion, first northward toward Amelia to feel 
Lee's position. The Fifth followed the railroad ; the Second 
marched on the left ; the Sixth on the right. Sheridan was 
sent in the direction of Deatonsville with all his cavalry except 
Mackenzie's, who was ordered to Ord's assistance. Ord was 
directed to cut the bridge over the Appomattox at Farmville, 
the point of crossing Lee would supposably try to make. 

Thwarted in his efforts to get south from Amelia by the 
Federal lines he found firmly extended across his path at 
Jetersville, Lee made his confession by withdrawing from Amelia 
on the night of April 5th, as Grant had foreseen. This was 
fully proved before the Federal army had advanced three miles 
in the direction of his lines, on the morning of the 6th. And 
now Lee's position was worse than ever before. Deep indeed 
must have been his disappointment over the failure to make 
Burkesville Junction before Grant reached there. He must 
try something still more desperate, and yet with a pervading 
consciousness that he was being out-generalled. Lynchburg, 
sixty miles away, became his only hope. But to get there he 
must recross the Appomattox at Farmville. Would Ord be 
there in time to intercept him ? 

So the two armies swung westward by parallel roads only 
five miles apart, Lee's slightly in advance. His was a frantic 
race for life, amid the demoralization of retreat, the disintegration 
of failure, the fear of other failure, yet the desperation that 
lends energy to a dying throe. Turn his eyes southward when 



380 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and where he would, toward Johnston, toward the fastnesses of 
the Carolina mountains, toward the central States of the Con- 
federacy, he could see nothing but the remorseless lines of 
Federal cohorts hugging and threatening his exposed flanks, 
and could feel only the determined energy, appalling scrutiny, 
baffling skill, disappointing anticipation, and terrific vigor of 
that spirit which guided and ruled those interposing legions. 

Lee had started from Amelia early on the night of the 5th, 
and by morning his advance was at Sailor's creek, beyond 
which the " inevitable Sheridan " turned up with his cavalry. 
He called a halt to let his trains pass to Farmville to cross the 
bridge. Ord had pushed a small advance force thither to 
burn the bridge, but it was attacked and almost annihilated. 
Yet the resolute stand it made led Lee to suppose that it was 
backed by a much stronger force, and he delayed his advance 
and began to entrench. This gave Sheridan time to catch his 
rear on the Deatonsville road. 

Grant had changed the marching order of the corps, throw- 
ing Humphreys' Second in the centre, Griffin's Fifth on the 
right and Wright's Sixth on the left. Lee's halt now enabled 
these corps to get quite even with him. Each had orders to 
harass and attack under all circumstances, but now special 
orders were issued to Humphreys to head directly for the 
enemy. He struck their front at Deatonsville. Grant imme- 
diately swung Griffin around to their left and rear, where he 
picked up hundreds of prisoners and forced the burning of 
many wagons, and ordered Ord to push for Farmville with 
his whole corps ; " the capture of the enemy is what we 
want." 

But Lee was soon found to be again on the move, and the 
work of envelopment went on. Griffin found himself almost 
between Lee and the Appomattox, Humphreys in his rear, on 
the Deatonsville road, and Wright well on his left, with 
Sheridan. Grant hastened to Burkesville to hurry Ord up to 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 38 1 

Farmville. Evidence was continually found of the enemy's 
desperate condition. Stragglers were innumerable, and were 
picked up as prisoners. They were hungry and almost 
clotheless. Trains were burned, guns thrown away, artillery 
buried. Lee's movements began to point positively to 
Farmville as his objective. His road was straight to Rice's 
Station and thence to Farmville. But Ord was at the station 
with a strong force which he had entrenched. Lee was 
checked again. Sheridan ordered Crook and Merritt to close 
on his rear and attack at every opportunity. Humphreys was 
in close quarters at Deatonsville, and making harassing attacks 
whenever an opening favored. At four in the afternoon 
Wright's Sixth and Sheridan's cavalry struck the road on 
which Lee was moving two miles south of Deatonsville. 
After a spirited engagement they broke his columns and took 
possession of the road. This threw part of his force westward 
on a by-road. It was attacked by Humphreys and driven to 
Sailor's creek, which had been fortified, and along which a 
strong body of Confederates lay. The cavalry worked their 
way beyond the creek. Wright attacked the entrenchments 
in front. The entire force seemed to be surrounded, but 
fought with desperate bravery. They were the centre of a 
converging fire of artillery and musketry, and out of humanity 
Wright ordered the artillery fire to cease, expecting that 
surrender would soon follow. But to his surprise, the enemy 
burst suddenly upon his ranks and drove them back beyond 
the creek, engaging all the while in a terrific hand to hand 
contest. The Federals reformed, opened again with artillery 
and musketry, charged back over the creek and upon the 
entrenchments. By this time the cavalry came closing in on 
the rear. Merritt and Crook pushed through the pines and 
up to the combatants. The Confederates stood bewildered for 
a moment and then threw down their arms in surrender. 
There were seven generals, Ewell, Kershaw, Custis, Semmes, 



382 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Corse, De Foe, and Barton, seven thousand other prisoners, 
fourteen guns, the entire rear guard of Lee's army. 

Humphreys had deflected to the north in pursuit of another 
column of the enemy, and had caught up with it near the 
mouth of Sailor's creek. He engaged at once, and captured 
three pieces of artillery, thirteen flags and several hundred 
prisoners. His entire captures during the day were four guns, 
one thousand seven hundred prisoners, three hundred wagons 
and thirteen colors. Griffin had not been engaged during the 
day, but had made long marches, and stopped for the night at 
Ligontown on the Appomattox. 

Nightfall of the 6th, saw Lee in narrower quarters than ever 
before. Sheridan and Wright had cut off and captured his 
rear, Humphreys and Griffin were hovering close on his right 
and rear, Ord was lying across his front. It was late when 
Grant met Ord, to whom he described the situation as one 
highly satisfactory in all respects, and as likely to reduce Lee's 
army to almost nothing inside of three days. To Sherman he 
sent a dispatch of the same tenor, and urged him to push 
Johnston immediately and hard so as to " finish this job all at 
once." Now word came to him of Sheridan's and Wright's 
splendid work during the day, and of the situation at nightfall. 
It came from Sheridan himself, and concluded with : " If the 
thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender." Grant sent the 
word to the President, then in Richmond. The laconic reply 
came " Let the thing be pressed." 

Every day, and almost every hour brought a tumult of new 
situations and emergencies. Grant set about divining the 
morrow. Should Lee cross at Farmville now, it was plain that 
his southern route would lie through Prince Edward's Court 
House. Ord could beat him to that point, and he was notified 
to be ready for the race in the morning. Mackenzie was 
directed thither at once, with orders to hold it. Griffin was 
ordered to make it his destination as soon as possible. But 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 383 

Lee evidently anticipated that Grant would confront him there. 
So on the night of the 6th, he turned his van, which had con- 
centrated strongly in front of Ord at Rice's Station, off to the 
right and made all speed for Farmville, to which point trains 
of supplies had been sent down from Lynchburg. Ord made 
the discovery early, and pressed him so hard that he could not 
unload his supplies, but sent them back to Appomattox Court 
House, whither he followed them. It was twenty miles to 
Appomattox Court House. His direction and destination 
were now determined for another day at least. 

Sheridan also made the discovery early. He put Crook 
directly in Lee's rear, and sent Merritt to move westward with 
two divisions through Prince Edward's Court House. Hum- 
phreys' Second was abroad early, and he struck Lee's rear at 
High bridge, five miles east of Farmville, where both high- 
road and railroad cross the Appomattox. Both bridges were 
burning when he arrived, and the enemy were strongly posted 
to dispute his passage. It was necessary to save the wagon 
bridge, at least, for the river was not fordable. A charge was 
made at once, and the bridge was cleared and saved. Artillery 
was brought to bear on the position beyond, but there was no 
response. The enemy moved off, abandoning eighteen pieces 
of artillery in all. Humphreys kept up the pursuit to Farm- 
ville, where the bridges were found burned, as well as one 
hundred and thirty train wagons. Yet he crossed the river 
i promptly, and kept up the pursuit. 

Lee marched directly north by the curved road running to 
Appomattox Court House, and to its junction with the road 
from High bridge. Here he stopped and fortified to give his 
trains time to pass and get beyond, and here Humphreys found 
him. As soon as Humphreys ascertained that the whole Con- 
federate army was in his front, he sent back word to Meade to 
support his Second with all his force. But, unfortunately, the 
corps had all pushed past High bridge and on to Farmville, 



384 LIFE OF ULYSSES 5. GRANT. 

where the bridges had been burned, and where delay in crossing 
would ensue. Humphreys was now in a predicament. His 
was the only force on the north side of the river. Grant hap- 
pily arrived in Farmville, from Burkesville. He at once ordered 
Crook's cavalry and Mott's division of the Second to ford the 
river and go to Humphreys' aid. Wright was directed to build 
a foot bridge and throw his Sixth across. Pontoons were laid 
for the artillery and trains. Before night of the 7th, Hum- 
phreys had a strong force with him. But he had had, in the 
meantime, a severe battle, in which one of his divisions (Miles') 
met with a repulse. Nor had the cavalry gotten across 
without difficulty. Gregg's division had been severely dealt 
with in fording the stream, and that gallant officer was captured. 
The baffled Lee could yet strike vigorous blows, and it was 
not well for the Federals to be off their guard, or too con- 
fident. 

Though Lee had been forced north of the Appomattox, it 
was deemed prudent to keep all the westward fordings of that 
stream guarded. Sheridan was ordered to watch them, and to 
hasten his main force, followed by Ord, to Prospect Station, 
and thence to Appomattox Court House. Griffin was to go 
by the same route. If they got there in advance of Lee, they 
were to attack the head of his column. The Second and Sixth 
were to press the enemy where he was now stationed, north of 
Farmville, and to follow vigorously, if he moved. 

Late on the evening of the 7th, Grant got some refreshing 
news from Sheridan, to the effect that a panic existed in Lynch- 
burg, and that the enemy were running all trains and supplies 
out of the city. It concluded: " Our troops are reported at 
Liberty. This must be Stoneman." And it was. He was 
coming on his raid from East Tennessee, spreading panic 
before him and leaving destruction behind. How wisely 
Grant had ordered when, in March, he foresaw the possibilities 
of just such a situation as was now before him, and started 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 385 

Stoneman eastward to cut communications, and make any 
retreat of Lee into the mountains difficult. Even to the last 
the columns were converging, and all the parts of the mighty 
military machinery working in unison. 

Though Grant found his respective columns further apart 
that night of April the 7th, than usual — Sheridan at Prospect 
Station, Meade at Rice's, Ord at Prince Edward's Court House, 
Humphreys north of the Appomattox, and Wright virtually 
over, they were nevertheless well in hand for the work of the 
next day, and his orders went out confidently and tersely. 
They evidently emanated from one entirely satisfied that the 
hour of Lee's surrender could not be further postponed with- 
out an unwarranted sacrifice of men and the exhibition of a 
pugnacity which, all things being equal, might pass as bravery, 
but w T hich under the circumstances must be classed as foolish 
desperation. Therefore in order to save further and useless 
effusion of blood, and at the same time relieve his beaten 
adversary of the mortification of bluntly confessing his inability 
to further cope with him, he wrote : — 

" Farmville, April 7th, 1865. 

" General : The result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness 
of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. 
I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility 
of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of 
the Confederate States' army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant General." 

Lee did not think that the time had yet come for surrender, 
though urged to it by an almost majority sentiment among 
his officers and the desperate straits of his men. He replied 
on the same date : — 

" General : I have received your note of this date. Though 

not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of 

further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, 

I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, 

25 



386 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the 
terms you will offer on condition of its surrender." 

Grant received this on the morning of the 8th. He imme- 
diately replied : 

" Your note of last evening in reply to mine of same date, 
asking the conditions on which I will accept the surrender of 
the Army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply I 
would say that peace being my great desire, there is but one 
condition I would insist upon, namely : that the men and 
officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms 
again against the government of the United States until 
properly exchanged. I will meet you, or designate officers to 
meet any officers you may name for the purpose, at any point 
agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the 
terms upon which the surrender of the Army of Northern 
Virginia will be received." 

On the same date (April 8th) he wrote to Stanton : " The 
enemy have, so far, been pushed from the road toward Dan- 
ville. I feel very confident of receiving the surrender of Lee 
and what remains of his army by to-morrow." 

Yet pursuit was not remitted in the least. On the night of 
the 7th Lee withdrew from Humphreys' front By 5 A. m. 
of the 8th, both he and Wright were in hot pursuit, which 
they kept up unremittingly till night. They were off again as 
early on the morning of the 9th, and amid great hardships, 
for their supply trains could not keep up and rations were 
short. At 1 1 A. m. on the 9th, Humphreys came up with the 
Confederate rear three miles east of Appomattox Court 
House. 

But Sheridan had been making good use of his time and 
had forged ahead so as to get his cavalry into, and even be- 
yond, Appomattox Station, which lies on the railroad five miles 
south of Appomattox Court House. Here he discovered 
several trains of* cars heavily loaded with supplies for Lee's 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 387 

army. It was the presence of these which made the posses- 
sion of Appomattox Court House so desirable to the retreat- 
ing and famished troops. Custer's division had only time to 
burn one train and send the others down toward Farmville, 
when he was set upon (April 8th) by a heavy force of Con- 
federate infantry and artillery. It proved to be Lee's advance 
column, coming for these very supplies and with no idea of 
meeting an enemy in force. Custer made vigorous battle and 
drove the foe back, capturing twenty-five pieces of artillery, 
an hospital train and many prisoners. Devin came to Custer's 
aid and together they pushed the enemy till nightfall and 
until he was quite back to Appomattox Court House. A re- 
connoissance showed that Lee's entire army was coming up 
the road toward the Court House. Sheridan's forces had 
therefore again beaten Lee's advance to its much coveted des- 
tination and were once more squarely across his track. It 
was half past nine o'clock on the night of April 8th, and 
Sheridan instantly sent to Grant to hurry Ord's Twenty- 
Fourth and Griffin's Fifth up to his support, adding : " We 
will perhaps finish the job in the morning. I do not think 
Lee means to surrender until compelled to do so." What 
could be more despairing than Lee's situation now, with his 
track squarely blocked, his destination cut off, his expected 
supplies destroyed or run into the Federal lines, two inspired 
and rapidly moving corps closing upon his rear, the one, 
Humphreys' Second, to strike him before noon on the mor- 
row (9th). 

Grant pushed rapidly from Farmville on the 8th to join 
Sheridan's advance. But worn out by loss of sleep, fatigue 
and unremitting supervision and mental anxiety, he was 
obliged to stop midway at a farm house to rest and recuperate. 
Here a reply reached him from Lee at midnight of the 8th. 
It read : 

" I received at a late hour your note of to-day. In mine of 



388 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

yesterday I did not intend to propose the surrender of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your pro- 
position. To be frank, I do not think the emergency has 
arisen to call for the surrender of this army ; but as the resto- 
ration of peace should be the sole object of all, I desire to 
know whether your proposals would lead to that end. I can- 
not, therefore, meet you with a view to surrender of the Army 
of Northern Virginia ; but, as far as your proposal may effect 
the Confederate States' forces under my command, I should 
be pleased to meet you at io a. m. to-morrow, on the old 
stage road to Richmond, between the picket lines of the two 
armies." 

The tenor of this letter was different from that of the day 
before, which was written when his rear-guard was under 
attack and his lines were lit up by his blazing wagon trains, 
when he found himself under the hard compulsion of turning 
northward across the Appomattox and seeking a new destina- 
tion. Now he seemed to feel that he had distanced the 
directly rear-guard pursuit, and had evidently not yet sus- 
pected that before morning Sheridan and perhaps two corps 
of infantry would rise up as obstacles to his advance. Grant 
interpreted the letter correctly, and perhaps forgave its spirit 
to the newly created hope of escape and freshly kindled 
desire to postpone to the very latest the humiliation of abso- 
lute surrender. But he was looking with other eyes on the 
situation, was impelled by different judgments. Cutting 
across all idle sentiment, distorting no situation, wiping away 
all glamour, disdaining ingenuity, resorting to nothing artifi- 
cial, cloudy or indirect, he returned answer on the morning 
of April 9th. : 

" Your note of yesterday received. I have no authority to 
treat on the subject of peace. The meeting proposed for 10 
a. m. to-day could lead to no good I will state, however, 
General, that I am equally desirous for peace with yourself, 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 389 

and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms 
upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the 
South laying down their arms they will hasten that most 
desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds 
of millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping 
that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of 
another life, I subscribe myself yours, 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant General." 
Ord marched his men all of the 8th, and until daylight of the 
9th, to reach Sheridan. Griffin followed as unremittingly, and 
by the afternoon of the 9th, came into position. The strain on 
the troops had been fearful, but they bore up cheerfully, under 
the inspiration of the hour, and all pervading conviction that 
just that kind of effort was now more effective than pitched 
battles, more blasting to the hop^s of the enemy than bloody 
victories. The infantry corps were not up and in position a 
moment too soon, for Lee had formed his advance in line of 
battle, and made a desperate attack upon Sheridan. That 
officer had formed his men dismounted, with their horses off 
to the right and rear. Ord, as senior, formed his own corps 
and Griffin's considerably in the rear, and directly across Lee's 
road. Sheridan's ranks, therefore, disguised the infantry com- 
pletely. The Confederates thought they had only the dis- 
mounted cavalry to contend with, and they made a spirited 
assault, before which Sheridan retreated. Encouraged by 
apparent success, the enemy dashed on in brave contention for 
a free right of way through and beyond Appomattox Court 
House. Still Sheridan retreated. He was now opposite where 
his horses were, and quite back to the Federal infantry lines. 
Then his lines broke, swept to the right, and formed mounted. 
The Federal infantry was uncovered, and rose up sheer in the 
Confederate front. Instantly the battle yells of the surging 
Confederates ceased, their quickened fire stopped, their last 
desperate charge came to a standstill. They wavered, staggered, 



390 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and huddled, but whether for retreat or surrender, they knew 
not, amid the terror inspired by that awful front of armed men, 
sweeping now from the hill sides and woods into the narrow 
valley, closing in their shotted and bayonetted ranks upon 
doomed flanks and fronts, with Sheridan off there to the left, 
mounted and formed, ready to swoop in upon the confused, 
entangled, and panic-stricken masses. Whither could they 
flee? Not forward ; nothing but serried and advancing lines 
there. Not sidewise and into the wooded hills ; cavalry on 
one side, solid infantry ranks on the other. Not backward, 
except to throw all behind into panic, and invite certain cap- 
ture, for were not Humphreys and Wright already close upon 
the rear of the entire Confederate army ? In a moment there 
would be unparalleled slaughter, if they stood nerveless, hud- 
dled, unformed ; or else, to save destruction, there would have 
to be abject surrender. 

Respite came. A white flag appeared in the distance. Its 
silent, petitionary, confessional language, all understood. No 
more deep-mouthed guns spake. Small arms ceased their 
lighter clangor. Bristling, surging columns came to a stand. 
A cessation of hostilities was asked, till Lee could meet Grant. 
Sheridan rode into Appomattox Court House, and found that 
Lee had sent a similar flag of truce to his rear, with a letter to 
Grant proposing surrender. If that were so, then why this 
attack and attempt to break through the Federal lines ? Sher- 
idan asked for an explanation of Generals Gordon and Wilcox, 
and for a guarantee that surrender was actually intended. The 
guarantee was given to both Sheridan and Ord by Gordon and 
Wilcox, but why an attack was permitted after having written 
that morning to Grant, and proposing surrender, was not 
satisfactorily explained. 

Lee sent his letter through his rear to Humphreys, under a 
flag of truce, and with a request not to press further on him. 
To this request Humphreys could not, of course, accede with- 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 39 1 

out orders from his superiors. He formed in line of battle, 
with his own and Wright's corps, when Meade came upon the 
scene. He granted a truce for an hour. He had received 
Lee's letter at nine o'clock and sent it to Grant, and expected 
to hear from him soon. But Grant had gone to Sheridan's 
front and Lee's letter did not reach him till noon (April 9th). 
It ran : 

" I received your note of this morning on the picket-line, 
whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely 
what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with 
reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an inter- 
view, in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of 
yesterday for that purpose." 

On receipt of it Grant wrote: " Your note of this date is but 
this moment (11.50 A. iff.) received, in consequence of my hav- 
ing passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg to the Farm- 
ville and Lynchburg roads. I am at this writing about four 
miles west of Walker's Church, and will push to the front for 
the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road 
where you wish the interview to take place will meet me." 
Col. Babcock carried this note through Sheridan's lines to Lee. 
The truces were extended by both Sheridan in front and 
Meade in the rear, till positive word came from Grant. 

On receipt of the note Lee rode to Appomattox Court 
House and selected the farmhouse of one McLean for his in- 
terview with Grant. As the imagination has had much to do 
with shaping the piece of history now enacted, we prefer to 
let General Grant tell the preliminary part of it in his own 
plain, straightforward way. He says in his personal memoirs: 

" I found General Lee had been brought into our lines and 
conducted to a house belonging to a Mr. McLean, and was 
there, with one of his staff officers, waiting my arrival. The 
head of his column was occupying a hill, a portion of which 
was an apple orchard, across the little valley from the Court 



392 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

House. Sheridan's forces were drawn up in line of battle on 
the crest of the hill on the south side of the same valley. 

" Before stating what took place between General Lee and 
myself, I will give all there is of the narrative of General Lee 
and the famous apple tree. Wars produce many stories of 
fiction, some of which are told until they are believed. The 
war of the Rebellion was fruitful in the same way. The story 
of the apple tree is one of those fictions with a slight foundation 
of fact. 

"As I have said, there was an apple orchard on the side of 
the hill occupied by the Confederate forces. Running diag- 
onally up the hill was a wagon road, which at one point ran 
very near one of the trees, so that the wheels on that side had 
cut off the roots of the trees, which made a little embankment. 

" General Babcock reported to me, that when he first met 
General Lee he was sitting upon this embankment, with his 
feet in the road, and leaning against the tree. It was then that 
Lee was conducted into the house where I first met him. 

" I had known General Lee in the old army, and had served 
with him in the Mexican War, but did not suppose, owing to 
the difference in our ages and rank, that he would probably 
remember me; while I would remember him more distinctly 
because he was the chief engineer on the staff of General Scott 
in the Mexican War. When I had left camp that morning, I 
had not expected the result so soon, that then was taking place, 
and consequently was in rough garb, and, I believe, without a 
sword, as I usually was when on horseback on the field, wear- 
ing a soldier's blouse for a coat, with shoulder straps of my 
rank to indicate who I was to the army. 

*' When I went into the house I found General Lee. We 
greeted each other, and after shaking hands, took our seats. 
What his feelings were I do not know. Being a man of much 
dignity and with an impenetrable face, it was impossible to say 
whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, 






394 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

or whether he felt sadly over the result, and was too manly to 
show it. Whatever his feelings were, they were entirely con- 
cealed from observation ; but my own feelings, which had been 
quite apparent on the receipt of his letter, were sad and de- 
pressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the 
downfall of a foe, that had fought so long and gallantly, and 
had suffered so much for a cause which I believed to be one of 
the worst for which a people ever fought, and for which there 
was not the least pretext. I do not question, however, the 
sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us. 
General Lee was dressed in full uniform, entirely new, and 
wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword 
that had been presented by the State of Virginia ; at all events, 
it was an entirely different sword from the one that would or- 
dinarily be worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, 
which was the uniform of a private, with the straps of a general, 
I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so hand- 
somely dressed, six feet high, and of faultless form. But this 
is not a matter that I thought of until afterward. 

" General Lee and I soon fell into a conversation about old 
army times. He remarked that he remembered me very well 
in the old army, and I told him as a matter of course I remem- 
bered him perfectly, but owing to the difference in years — there 
being about sixteen years difference in our ages — and dlir 
rank, I thought it very likely I had not attracted his attention 
sufficiently to be remembered after such a long period. Our 
conversation grew so pleasant, that I almost forgot the object 
of our meeting. General Lee, at that time, was accompanied 
by one of his staff officers, a Colonel Marshall. I had all of 
my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room 
during the whole of the interview." 

After this introduction, Lee turned to the object of the inter- 
view, and said : " I asked to see you, General Grant, to ascertain 
upon what terms you will receive the surrender of my army." 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER, 395 

The reply was: "The officers and men must become pris- 
oners of war, giving up, of course, all munitions, weapons and 
supplies; but a parole will be accepted, binding them to go to 
their homes, and remain there until exchanged or released by 
proper authority." 

Lee replied that he had expected some such terms. Grant 
then asked : " Do I understand, General Lee, that you accept 
these terms? " " Yes," said Lee, " and if you will put them in 
writing, I will sign them." Turning to a table, the victorious 
chieftain wrote: 

"Appomattox Court House, Va., April 9th, 1865. 
" General : In accordance with the substance of my letter to you, of the 8th 
inst, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the 
following terms, to wit : Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate , 
one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained 
by such officer, or officers, as you may designate. The officers to give their indi- 
vidual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States 
until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a 
like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public pro- 
perty to be packed and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to 
receive them. This will not embrace the side arms of the officers, nor their private 
horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to 
his home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe 
their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. 

"U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 
" General R. E. Lee." 

It is said that Grant, while in the act of writing, looked up, 
and noticing Lee's sword, changed his terms so as to exempt 
officers' side arms. Lee read the paper carefully before signing, 
and seemed much pleased with the clemency of the terms, re- 
marking that the conditions were magnanimous, and would 
have a good effect upon his army. He asked for such modi- 
fication as would allow the men to retain their animals. But 
Grant replied : " I believe the war is now over, and that the 
surrender of this army will be followed soon by the surrender 
of all the others. I know that the men, and indeed the whole 



396 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

South, are impoverished. I will not change the terms of the 
surrender, General Lee, but I will instruct my officers who 
receive the paroles to allow the cavalry and artillerymen to 
retain their horses, and take them home to work their little 
farms." 

Lee again expressed his acknowledgments and sitting down 
wrote his reply : — 

"Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, April 9th, 1 865. 

" General : I received your letter of this date containing the terms of the sur- 
render of the Army of Northern Virginia, as proposed by you. As they are sub- 
stantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th inst., they are 
accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations 
into effect. 

« R. E. Lee, General. 

" Lieutenant-General, U. S. Grant." 

These formal ceremonies over, the Federal officers present 
were introduced to Lee, who received them very formally. 
He ended the business by asking that the supplies in the trains 
which had come up from Lynchburg be distributed to his 
famished troops. Grant informed him that they had been 
captured by Sheridan, but that rations would be issued to the 
prisoners. He asked how many. Lee could form no estimate. 
He had had no returns for days, and his losses by killed, cap- 
tured, straggled and deserted, had been enormous. " Would 
25,000 rations do? " asked Grant. Lee replied that he thought 
it would. The victor ordered this number to be issued. Hu- 
manity spake, and a generous conqueror fed his starving 
enemies. 

The Confederate leader rode back to his army. As his men 
rushed around him, the tears gushed from his eyes, and amid 
sobs he said to the gathering crowds, " Men, we have fought 
through the war together. I have done the best I could for 
you." The response was a round of broken cheers that spoke 
their love for an old leader, and served as the expiring breath 



39 8 LIp E OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

of that once proud organization known as the Army of North- 
ern Virginia. 

Grant too returned to his lines, whither the glorious news 
had preceded him, and where salutes were already firing in 
honor of victory and his coming. He ordered this kind of 
demonstration to cease, saying, " The war is over, the rebels 
are our countrymen, and the best sign of rejoicing after the 
victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field." 
Then sitting on a stone by the wayside and calling for paper 
and pencil, he penned the words which were to electrify the 
nation, announce the birth of peace, and begin a new era in 
our civilization. It was 4.30 p. m. of Sunday, April 9th, 1865. 

" Hon. E. M. Stanton, 

" 'Secretary of War, Washington. 
" General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia this afternoon on 
terms proposed by myself. The accompanying additional correspondence will 
show the conditions fully. 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General." 

Not in all the history of this great country had such wel- 
come news been borne to an anxious and long-tried people. 
When Richmond fell the jubilation had known no bounds, but 
now every patriotic instinct was touched as never before, and 
unlimited freedom was given to every impulse of joy and thanks. 
The one calm, self possessed spirit among the excited and un- 
restrained millions was his, to which under kind Providence, 
these glorious results were chiefly due. He would have no 
spectacular triumph then, not even a field review, but would 
return immediately to Washington to disband his armies and 
save expense. 

On the 10th he rode to the Confederate lines and had a final 
and kind interview with Lee and the leading Confederate offi- 
cers. His officers did the same. There was cordial talk of 
war times and war issues, sad confessions on the one side 
that all was lost, happy assurance on the other that the country 



FIVE FORKS AND SURRENDER. 399 

was on the eve of a new and brighter destiny, and general agree- 
ment that the principle of property in man had been obliterated 
from our institutions. Victors indulged in no offensive exul- 
tation ; vanquished found balm for defeat in the magnanimous 
and satisfactoiy conditions of surrender, and recompense for 
supposed loss of estates and political privileges in the thought 
of escape from trial and execution for the crime of treason. 

Grant was now off for Washington. On April 12th, Lee's 
army marched past a spot designated for the deposit of its 
arms and paraphernalia. Sadly and doggedly they filed by 
the ranks of their conquerors, who uttered no cheer, aimed no 
taunt. Grimly they approached the spot which was soon to 
be piled high with trophies, and there they silently parted with 
gun, bayonet, accoutrement and the standards they had fol- 
lowed with veneration through four long years of bloody con- 
flict. The glory had departed from their ranks. The sun 
had set forever on their ambitions and their cause. Lee did 
not witness this solemn ceremony. He had started for Rich- 
mond which he entered on the 1 2th, to find it so impoverished 
that he was glad to accept a " destitute ration " as his first 
supper within the conquered and lost capital. 

And now Grant's great spring campaign had ended on the 
line and in the way he proposed from the beginning. He 
made Petersburg and Richmond untenable, started their 
armed occupants into the open, baffled them in every attempt 
to get south and join Johnston, marched by them, followed 
them, out-manceuvred them, beat them when they stood in 
battle, surrounded them in an open country, crowded them 
into an area so small that they could not move, compelled 
surrender. It was not bloody victory, but bloodless annihila- 
tion; not a blow, but an end. Petersburg was nothing; Rich- 
mond was nothing. They were not entered in force, hardly 
looked into. The corporate energy, the armed vigor, the liv- 
ing moving presence of the Confederacy was what Grant saw. 



400 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

That he would have. All else was secondary. For this he 
planned and wrought. Having that, his triumph was supreme. 

The immediate and material results of his wonderful stra- 
tegy and persistent effort were 27,516 prisoners at Appomat- 
tox, and 46,495 captured between that and the opening of the 
campaign, making a total of 74,011 since the 29th of March, 
1865. During the same time the Confederate losses in killed 
must have been 5000. The losses in the Army of the 
Potomac from March 29th to April 9th were 105 1 killed, 
5704 wounded, 1769 missing, total 8524. 

The grand result — that to the country, the world— cannot be 
measured by words. It was the end of a long, bloody, 
exhausting, fratricidal war, the extinction of a cause which 
inspired it, the downfall of institutions which sought foundation 
and recognition through it, the revolution of that government 
and those institutions which survived under the name of the 
again United States of America, by cutting them off forever 
from the barbarous principle of property in man, by giving 
them the baptism of a truer freedom, by preparing them for a 
future whose triumphs should be only those of peace, whose 
benefactions should be for all the people, whose history should 
be the most glorious among the nations. 



CHAPTER XX. 

NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

AFTER his appointment as Lieutenant-General, Grant's first 
care was, as we have seen, to divide the country into such 
military departments and secure for the same such armies and 
generals, as would make all his plans harmonious and most effec- 
tively co-operative. There was now one responsible mind ; there 
should be but one set of forces working together for a common 
result. 

Just before Chattanooga, the Military Division of the Missis- 
sippi had been established for him. 
To this he now added Arkansas, 
and made (spring of 1864) Sherman 
his successor. After the failure of 
Bank's Red River expedition he crea- 
ted a department on the lower Missis- 
sippi and Gulf coast called the Mili- 
tary Division of West Mississippi, 
with General Canby in command. 
We have already seen how he con- 
solidated the discordant departments 
around Washington under Sheridan, 

, TTT . . . / GEN. CANBY. 

when Washington was threatened. 

These evidences of generalship at the beginning of, and through- 
out, the campaigns of 1864-65, bring the organizing ability of 
the Lieutenant-General into conspicuous relief and, coupled 
with ttfe unerring direction thereby given to the Federal armed 
forces,, furnish a standpoint for study and admiration found in 
36 401 




402 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

few, if any, of the great military characters of ancient or mod- 
ern history. 

Grant was so confident of Sherman's ability to master the 
situations that might arise in his department that he forebore 
giving him detailed instructions, except as to the time of start- 
ing. He wanted Sherman to win a separate renown, because 
he thought he deserved it. Therefore after a long talk at 
Nashville, in the spring of 1864, and a full understanding of 
Grant's plans and purposes, Sherman was left to carry them 
out in his own way. Let us see how it all came about, for 
this is necessary in order to fully realize the comprehensive 
grasp and magnificent military skill of the Lieutenant- 
General, and complete the wonderful picture of grand com- 
binations and proud material results which appeared on the 
canvass of history. 

The Confederate army under General Johnston lay at 
Dalton, just south of Chattanooga, whither it had re- 
treated after the battle of Chattanooga. It numbered about 
sixty thousand effectives, and was strongly entrenched. 
Hardee, Polk, and Hood commanded its three corps, 
Wheeler its cavalry, and G. W. Smith a division of Georgia 
State troops. 

Sherman engaged with spirit in the work of organizing his 
department and concentrating his forces. By May 1st, 1864, 
his forces were well in hand, in good condition, and under 
faithful and able officers. The Army of the Cumberland, 
under General George H. Thomas, was at Chattanooga and 
down along the railroad toward Dalton. It was composed of 
three corps, Howard's Fourth, Palmer's Fourteenth, and 
Hooker's Twentieth. The Army of the Tennessee, under 
General McPherson, was on Chickamauga creek. It was 
composecj of Logan's Fifteenth Corps, Dodge's Sixteenth 
(part), and Blair's Seventeenth (part). The Army of the Ohio, 
under Schofield, had moved down from Knoxville to the 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 403 

Georgia State line at Red Clay. It comprised part of the 
Twenty-third Corps and Stoneman's Cavalry. 
The Combined forces were : 





Army 


of Cumberland. 


Army 


• of Tennessee. 


Army of Ohio. 


Infantry, 




54,568 




22,437 


11,183 


Artillery, 




2,377 




1,404 


679 


Cavalry, 


Total, 


3,828 




624 


1,697 




6o,773 


24,465 


13,559 


Guns, 




130 




96 


28 



Grand total, 98,797 men ; 254 guns. 

Sherman was in motion promptly on the day designated by 
Grant, May 6th, 1864. Johnston's position at Dalton was 
found impregnable, and direct assault out of the question. All 
the region around is mountainous and difficult. Strategy must 
therefore be resorted to. Thomas was pushed to Tunnel Hill 
in the face of the enemy, with orders to demonstrate vigorously. 
Schofield was brought down close to Dalton, as a threat on 
the enemy's right. McPherson passed through the gaps with 
orders to strike and capture Resaca, on the railroad, eighteen 
miles south of Dalton and directly in Johnston's rear. 
Thomas' demonstrations became a series of savage assaults 
which resulted in the capture of some of the enemy's strongest 
outposts. But McPherson found Resaca too strong for attack. 
He was rapidly reinforced by Schofield and Thomas. But 
Johnston had, in the meantime, become alarmed at these 
rearward operations. He therefore evacuated Dalton and fell 
rapidly back to Resaca. 

Sherman was close upon him. On May 12th he enveloped 
the Confederate works, and swung a strong column of infantry 
and cavalry to Calhoun, south and rearward of Johnston. By the 
14th, his corps were all in position to attack, and a heavy battle 
ensued, which brought the Federals no results, except the 
capture of four guns and several hundred prisoners by 
Hooker. But Johnston became again fearful of the demon- 



404 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

stration in his rear and fell back, during the night, to Adairs- 
ville, followed closely by Thomas, while Jefferson C. Davis' 
Division made a diversion to Rome, capturing the place with 
ten large guns and a vast amount of supplies. 

Thomas' pursuit was so close and persistent that Johnston 
did not stop at Adairsville, but kept on to Cassville, where he 
stopped and fortified. Here there was every indication of a 
general battle, but by the time his position was invested he 
retreated again beyond the Etowah, holding Allatoona pass as 
a cover. Sherman now boldly cut loose from his supplies, and 
crossed the Etowah to turn the position at Allatoona. He 
made Dallas his objective. Johnston anticipated the movement 
and, disposing himself accordingly, offered serious opposition. 
Hooker's attack on New Hope Church was repulsed with 
great loss, and McPherson fought a severe battle to retain his 
place in front of Dallas, in which the enemy were repelled with 
heavy losses. These delicate and dangerous operations in a 
hilly, densely wooded, and unknown country, consumed 
several days. 

On June 1st, Sherman's cavalry captured Allatoona, and 
opened his communications northward. Sherman now engaged 
in a series of flanking manoeuvres, and a direct threat on 
Atlanta, in obedience to which Johnston gradually fell back, 
but all the while kept himself securely covered. By June 9th, 
Johnston was back to a strong position on Kenesaw and Lost 
Mountain, and covering Marietta, with Sherman close on his 
front. On the 1 ith, he sent word to Washington, " I will pro- 
ceed with due caution, and try to make no mistake. One of 
my chief objects being to give full employment to Joe John- 
ston, it makes but little difference where he is, so he is not on 
his way to Virginia." How admirably the Western general 
was carrying out the spirit of Grant's instructions, and how 
much the campaign which was bearing Johnston southward 
resembled that which had, by this time, forced Lee from the 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 



405 



Rapidan to Cold Harbor ! And Grant was not unmindful of 
Sherman's energy and persistency, for he had already recom- 
mended him for the rank of major-general in the regular 
army. 

Sherman spent many days in reconnoitering Johnston's 
position at Kenesaw, and seeking a point to strike. On June 
27th, he assaulted under McPherson and Thomas, at two places 
about a mile apart. It was terribly fatal to the Federal troops, 
who lost three thousand in killed and wounded, among them 
Generals McCook and Harker. 
The Confederate losses did not 
exceed five hundred. But the 
assault enabled the Federals to 
gain a close position under the 
enemy's elevated works, which 
they held till July 2d, when Mc- 
Pherson withdrew and made a 
flank movement, in connection with 
Stoneman's cavalry, toward the 
Chattahoochee. Johnston imme- 
diately fell back to Smyrna, five 
miles southwest of Marietta, pur- 
sued by Thomas. Logan took possession of Marietta. 

Again Johnston's position was turned, and by July 9th, both 
armies were across the Chattahoochee, Johnston covering the 
approaches to Atlanta, now only five miles distant, and which he 
was fortifying with all dispatch. Here both generals adopted 
a policy of great caution and strategy. Johnston's losses had 
been ten thousand in killed and wounded, and forty-seven 
hundred prisoners. His loss of ground, stores and prestige 
had been more disastrous. Atlanta, the stake of the campaign, 
must depend on the strength and skill of his next move. Sher- 
man occupied a few days in perfecting his communications. 
His losses too had been great, but especially so by necessary 




GEN. McCOOK. 



406 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

subtractions made to guard the long line of railroad back 
to Chattanooga, upon which he now depended for supplies. 

Rousseau, with a cavalry force of two thousand men, was 
ordered from Decatur on July ioth, to cut Johnston's com- 
munications with the southwest. He marched to Talladega, 
and on the 16th, struck the railroad at Loachapoka. Moving 
thence to Opelika, he destroyed thirty -two miles of track. On 
the 22d, he reached Marietta, having lost only thirty men. On 
the 17th, Sherman began a flank and rearward movement, 
designed to capture Atlanta. At this juncture Johnston was 
removed, and General Hood given command of the Confed- 
erate army. Sad confession, indeed; for Johnston was a better 
tactician than even Lee, and as resolute a man as could be 
found in the Confederacy. He fell a victim to the narrow con- 
victions and petty jealousies of Davis and his cabinet. 

By July 20th, Sherman had his three armies well around 
Atlanta, with a gap between Schofield and Thomas, which 
Howard was directed to fill. Hood discovered this gap, and 
massed to take advantage of it and crush Thomas' right. He 
made what was described as " one of the most reckless, mas- 
sive, and headlong charges of the war," under Bate and Walker, 
of Hardee's corps. Hooker's corps caught the brunt of it 
without cover and, aided by Newton and Johnson, he repulsed 
it with a loss to the enemy of nearly five thousand men, five 
hundred of whom were left dead on the field, together with one 
thousand wounded. Sherman's loss was five hundred. 

Hood withdrew, on the night of the 21st, to the immediate 
defences of Atlanta, closely followed by Sherman's entire army, 
with Thomas on the right, Schofield in the centre, and McPher- 
son on the left. On the 22d, McPherson found his left attacked 
with great fury by Hardee, who had made a night detour for 
the purpose. McPherson rushed to the endangered point, and 
was killed while rallying his men. Logan assumed command. 
Stewart's and Polk's corps were now attacking Logan in front 



408 



LIFE OF ULfSSES S. GRANT. 



That officer rallied his broken forces, recklessly dasned along 
their lines, and flaming with the spirit of a Ney, threw them 




GEN. McPHERSON. 



forward with irresistible vigor on the enemy. Sherman 
watched the movement with extreme anxiety, for his whole 
army was in peril. But its success soon gratified him. Logan 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 409 

handled his men so quickly and well, and fought with such 
desperation, that the enemy began to give ground, and finally 
broke into retreat. Sherman's losses were thirty-seven hun- 
dred and twenty-two in killed, wounded, and prisoners, among 
which was the gallant McPherson, whom both he and Grant 
greatly loved. When Grant heard of the death of this brave, 
gifted, and trusted officer, he could not restrain his tears, but 
wept as one who had lost the best friend on earth, and even 
found time in the midst of his great weight of care to send 
a letter of tender condolence to the mother of the dead 
officer, whose reply was touchingly thankful for cherished 
words from such an honored source in her hour of supreme 
anguish. 

The Confederate losses were nearly double the above. Hood 
was a reckless fighter, and in his two daring battles thus far 
had sacrificed fully twenty per cent, of his army. 

On the 23d Garrard's division destroyed all the railroads, 
except the Macon, in Hood's rear. Stoneman's and Gar- 
rard's cavalry, five thousand strong, were sent to cut this, 
with orders to fight their way to the junction of the roads at 
Eastpoint, south of Atlanta, where they might expect to meet 
the Army of the Tennessee, now commanded by Howard. 
(Logan had yielded to Howard, his senior.) But while How- 
ard was executing this movement to the rear, he was fallen 
upon by Hardee and Lee, who attacked Logan's corps with 
great fury. But for the coolness and fortitude of that officer 
the Army of the Tennessee must have suffered signal defeat. 
Logan covered his front with temporary breastworks, and re- 
pelled six different assaults, with a loss to the enemy which 
he estimated at five thousand, and to his own corps of six 
hundred. 

By August 1st, Sherman's army was not a happy one. 
Hooker felt aggrieved at Howard's promotion to the com- 
mand of the Army of the Tennessee, and was, at his own re- 



4io 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



The time 
slowly 



working 



till August 
his lines 



quest, relieved. Slocum took his corps. Palmer was simi- 
larly relieved, and succeeded by General Jefferson C. Davis. 
Stanley took Howard's corps. Logan, who was really the 
aggrieved party, fought on at the head of his corps without 
a murmur. The cavalry expedition had proven a failure, and 
Stoneman surrendered part of his command to a body of 
intercepting militiamen. 

15th was spent by Sherman in 
around Atlanta toward the right. 
Finding this process tardy, and 
being too impatient to engage in 
regular siege operations, he sud- 
denly swung his army south of 
the place and across the enemy's 
communications, which he de- 
stroyed. On August 3 1st, How- 
ard was attacked and, after two 
hours' fighting, the Confederates 
hastily retreated, leaving two thou- 
sand and five hundred killed and 
wounded on the field. On the 
next day Davis assaulted the 
Confederate lines, captured eight guns and Govan's bri- 
gade, but could not press his advantage further owing to 
lack of support. That night the Confederates evacuated both 
Atlanta and Jonesboro and fell back to Lovejoy's Station, 
the cavalry going toward McDonough and the militia toward 
Covington. 

Sherman had now reached his objective point, Atlanta. He 
concentrated there for rest and reorganization. He had been 
active for four months, was now in the heart of the Confed- 
eracy, had kept the Confederate army busy, now saw it broken 
and going off by different roads, was where he could swing 
toward Virginia and Grant, and had the entire railroad system 




GEN. SLOCUM, 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 41 I 

of the south at his mercy. Grant could look out from his 
Petersburg entrenchments on the happy fulfillment of all his 
plans thus far, and safely calculate that the forces he had set 
in motion in the spring would further co-operate and converge 
till the end could no longer be postponed. 

Hood concentrated at Palmetto Station twenty-five miles 
from Atlanta, and reorganized. For two months Forrest kept 
up a series of disastrous raids, which greatly annoyed Sher- 
man and gave Grant much uneasiness. But they were 
checked in October by a Tennessee force. Sherman's cavalry 
was very inefficient all this time. It was widely scattered, 
and of limited numbers. Grant perceived this, and ordered 
Wilson from Virginia to act as Sherman's Chief of Cavalry, 
with full power to organize and command all the force he 
could gather; another striking instance of the Lieutenant 
General's careful supervision of his commands and wonderful 
knowledge of their most pressing wants. For this Sherman 
was very grateful, and might well have said as at Chatta- 
nooga, " I knew that wherever I was you were thinking of 
me, and if in difficulty would come to my rescue, if alive." 
Wilson soon brought order out of confusion, and in a short 
time had seventy-two regiments of cavalry organized into 
fifteen brigades and seven divisions, all under approved 
leaders. Sherman's cavalry branch was now stronger than 
the enemy's. 

In September, Price invaded Missouri with ten thousand 
men, where he roamed around with impunity and made 
many valuable captures, in the presence of Rosecrans, who 
for a long time failed to concentrate against him. At length he 
made a stand at Big Blue river, and was routed with the 
loss of artillery, trains and many prisoners. He then beat 
a retreat to Arkansas. After the failure of Banks' Red 
River Expedition, General Canby, then in command of the 
West Mississippi Military Division, was directed to send the 



412 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Nineteenth Corps to Washington, where it arrived in time, as 
already seen, to assist Sheridan in his Valley operations. 
Thus Grant utilized all his idle forces, and in such a way as to 
have them come in at the very nick of time. He worked his 
problems out far in advance, and seemed to anticipate junc- 
tures and prepare for them with the accuracy of a profound 
mathematician. 

On September ioth, 1864, Grant, in pursuance of his original 
design, as communicated to Sherman at Nashville, in January, 
1864, asked the latter if it would not now be best for him to 
move on Augusta, while Canby's troops acted upon Savannah. 
Sherman replied that he could go to Milledgeville and compel 
Hood to give up Augusta and Macon, and thus sweep the 
whole State of Georgia, provided he (Grant) could manage to 
take the Savannah river up to Augusta, or the Chattahoochee 
up to Columbus, but that otherwise the question of provisions 
would not let him move too far from Atlanta. Grant then 
wrote of his proposed capture of Wilmington, N. C, and a 
movement from there. Sherman then saw his way through, 
by keeping Hood employed while he marched to Augusta, 
Columbia and Charleston, Grant in the meantime to take both 
Wilmington and Savannah. 

But Hood, Forrest and Wheeler were now (October, 1864) 
all loose, " without home or habitation." They were yet 
sufficiently strong to make the situation interesting for Sher- 
man, especially since Hood had thoroughly reorganized his 
broken forces at Palmetto Station, and had marched northward 
with evident designs on the Federal communications, and per- 
haps on the State of Tennessee. Sherman thought the move- 
ment a ruse to draw him away from Atlanta, but Grant detected 
in it a serious attempt to recapture Tennessee. He therefore 
did not issue the necessary authority for Sherman to begin his 
historic march to the Atlantic till midnight of October I ith, 
and only after the assurance that Sherman had made such dis- 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 413 

position of his forces under Thomas and others, as would amply 
protect Nashville and the entire State of Tennessee. 

Hood was now fully forth, and rapidly destroying the railroad 
north of Sherman. Leaving Slocum's Twentieth at Atlanta, 
Sherman pushed rapidly after him with the Fourth, Fourteenth, 
Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Twenty third Corps, and two divi- 
sions of cavalry. General Corse's brigade was ordered from 
Rome to Allatoona just in time to save the place from capture 
by a detachment from Hood under General French. The bat- 
tle was a bloody one, in which Corse was badly wounded and 
lost heavily in killed and wounded. 

Though Sherman followed Hood rapidly, that doughty officer 
kept on northward, destroying the railroad and even capturing 
the garrison at Dalton. Here he deflected, and was pursued 
to Gadsden, on the Coosa, avoiding battle as much as possible. 
Thence, passing the Lookout ranges, he marched toward De- 
catur, on the Tennessee, where he joined with Taylor's army 
from Central Mississippi. Sherman became aware of this on 
October 25th, and had, in anticipation of it, sent Thomas to 
Nashville to take command of his old department. Stanley's 
Fourth was ordered to Chattanooga to report to Thomas. 
Schofield's Twenty-third was placed under similar orders. 
Wilson, who had organized Kilpatrick's division of cavalry, 
five thousand strong, to attend Sherman on his march to the 
sea, was also sent to Nashville to reorganize a still larger cav- 
alry force, assist Thomas in repelling the enemy, and then start 
after Sherman, joining him wherever he might be found. 

Sherman now completed his own arrangements for the cam- 
paign eastward to the Atlantic. All his corps, designed to 
protect Tennessee and co-operate with Thomas, were sent 
northward to Chattanooga and Kingston. All the railroads 
running into Atlanta were destroyed. Communication with 
the North was entirely cut off. On November 14th, Sherman 
concentrated his remaining force at Atlanta, and burned the 



4H 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



public buildings, depots and machine shops. The fires got 
too much headway, and nearly the whole town was burned. 
Rome suffered nearly a like fate. 

On November 16th, Sherman started eastward from Atlanta 
with the Fourteenth Corps, and marched directly for Milledge- 
ville. He had previously sent his right wing, with Kilpatrick's 
cavalry, to Macon and Gordon. On the same day, Slocum 
moved along the Augusta railroad for Madison, with orders to 

meet the centre at Milledgeville. 
The different columns were under 
orders to form a junction at the end 
of seven days, and in the mean- 
time railroads,b ridges, public stores, 
and all property contributing to 
warlike supplies of the enemy were 
to be destroyed. The army's right 
was composed of the Fifteenth and 
Seventeenth Corps, under Howard, 
and the left of the Fourteenth and 
Twentieth, under Slocum. Kilpat- 
rick had about fifty-five hundred 
cavalry. Sixty pieces of artillery were taken along. Each 
soldier carried forty rounds of ammunition, and the wagons one 
hundred and sixty rounds per man. The total infantry strength 
was sixty thousand men. The trains carried twenty days' ra- 
tions and five days' forage. A supply of beef was driven along 
on foot. The trains consisted of twenty-five hundred wagons 
and six hundred ambulances. 

The destination depended on the character of the opposition 
met with. Hood was off to the northwest and could not give 
serious trouble for a time. The Georgia towns were defended 
by militia whose opposition was not feared, unless they could 
concentrate. The greatest danger was from Lee, who might 
lend a strong force from Petersburg. But Grant would watch 




GEN. KILPATRICK. 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 415 

this, and he gave orders to follow any troops Lee might de- 
tach. If Sherman could get through he would go to Charles- 
ton or Savannah. If he could not, he would strike the Gulf 
coast. He would go as far as he could, and do all the injury 
to. railroads and public property in his power. 

And now he was off, moving as nearly as may be by four 
roads, bivouacking without tents, marching on an average fifteen 
miles a day, converging at stated intervals and at designated 
places, the troops to live as much as possible off the country, 
so as to save rations. The day Sherman began to move, the 
alarm and confusion of the enemy and of the entire Confed- 
eracy began. Cobb appealed for aid to save Georgia. Beaure- 
gard would rob the Carolinas of troops to protect Tuscambia. 
Taylor was ordered to pursue with all the Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi troops he could gather. Wheeler was instructed to 
follow closely with his cavalry and attack at all favorable points. 

But we must now go back to Tennessee. Sherman had 
somewhat miscalculated Hood's designs and the magnitude of 
his movement. Still he had left what he thought an ample 
force behind for the defence of Tennessee, and under the re- 
liable Thomas, to whom his last words were to give up all 
minor points, if Hood persisted in forcing his way north, and 
concentrate so as to protect Nashville and hold the road to 
Murfreesboro and Stevenson. Grant, who had interpreted 
the situation more accurately, sent this identical word to 
Thomas two weeks before. Thomas, however, held all he 
could. He centred his cavalry at Florence to prevent Hood's 
crossing of the Tennessee till Stanley's Fourth could arrive 
from Georgia. On October 30th, Schofield's Twenty-Third 
corps reached him. On the 31st, Hood crossed to the north of 
the Tennessee and his intentions became fully known. Mean- 
while Forrest was making a disastrous raid along the Tennes- 
see nearly to the Ohio river, which kept Thomas' forces divided. 
Hood, however, did not take advantage of this state of affairs. 



4l6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Thomas' force was now 24,264 in the Fourth and Twenty- 
Third Corps, and 5543 cavalry under Wilson. He had in 
addition strong infantry and cavalry garrisons at Murfreesboro, 
Bridgeport, Huntsville, Decatur and Chattanooga, which he had 
thus far declined to call in, as instructed by both Grant and Sher- 
man, and whose united strength was over 20,000 men. Hood's 
strength consisted of 30,600 infantry, and Forrest's cavalry esti- 
mated at 5000 to 10,000. Thomas' actual strength was there- 
fore less than Hood's, at the time the latter crossed the Tennessee, 
but troops were sent to him from various points in the North, 
and Smith was hastening to him with a force from Missouri. 

Grant was very apprehensive and did all he could to aid 
Thomas, but the latter seemed confident, though slow. As 
late as November 10th he spoke of taking the offensive as soon 
as he could concentrate his forces. This seemed to Grant like 
provoking tardiness, especially since the Confederates had not 
only had abundance of time to concentrate, but Breckinridge 
had marched all the way from Virginia into East Tennessee, 
and driven Gillem's Federal force of fifteen hundred men from 
Morristown into Knoxville with considerable loss. This forced 
Thomas to reinforce Knoxville from Louisville and Chatta- 
nooga, and in addition he sent Stoneman with a large cavalry 
force to punish and pursue Breckinridge. 

After November 12th, Sherman severed connection with 
Thomas, and from this time he received his orders directly 
from Grant. Thus the eye of the Lieutenant General had to 
be turned to the maintenance of what Sherman had secured, 
and the command of the armies he had left behind, which 
were confronted by Hood's reorganized forces. Fortunately, 
Hood lingered around Florence as if appalled by the boldness 
of his own movement across a hostile river. Grant ordered 
Thomas to concentrate harder than ever, but also to follow 
Hood closely if he retreated so as to prevent him from reach- 
ing Sherman's rear. 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 417 

On November 21st, Hood marched by Pulaski, where Scho- 
field's corps was, and attempted to get between him and Nash- 
ville. Thomas out-witted him by ordering Schofield back to 
Columbia. On the 27th the enemy felt Schofield's lines and 
manifested a desire to cross Duck river. That night Schofield 
evacuted Columbia and withdrew to the north bank. Hood 
crossed five miles above, on the 29th, and made for Spring 
Hill to turn Schofield's flank and rear. Fortunately, Stanley's 
Fourth reached there first and held the place against an attack 
which lasted until dark, and in which the enemy was repulsed 
with heavy loss. Schofield now came up, and pushed on in 
the night to Franklin, where he took position and fortified. 
Here he was attacked by Hood's entire army, with great 
spirit and determination, but with the usual recklessness of 
that officer. The Confederate defeat was signal and their 
losses were 1 750 killed, 3800 wounded and 702 prisoners. 
Six general officers were wounded, five killed and one cap- 
tured. Schofield's losses were 189 killed, 1033 wounded and 
1 1 04 missing. Schofield had 24,000 men engaged and Hood 
37,000. The victory was of immense moment to Schofield. 
It caused Hood to halt for a time, and enabled an inferior 
army to make its retreat good to Nashville, which it did by 
December 1st. 

Thomas sent word of the victory to Grant, and also that he 
was waiting till Smith should reach him and Wilson should 
get his cavalry equipped, when he would assume the offensive, 
with a force equal to Hood's. Grant did not understand why 
so signal a victory should not be followed up, nor why Hood 
should be allowed to have time to dispose of his forces as he 
saw fit. The government was very solicitous. Grant urged 
an attack before Hood could fortify, or begin raids upon the 
railroads. Thomas plead weakness, especially in cavalry. 
The great question was, why hadn't he concentrated his forces? 
But he now rose to the emergency and called Steedman from 
27 



41 8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Chattanooga, with five thousand. Smith arrived with ten 
thousand from Missouri. By November 2d, he was stronger 
than Hood in infantry, though much weaker in cavalry. Yet 
he was virtually penned up in Nashville, had even lost direct 
communication with Chattanooga. On the 5th, Grant again 
advised an attack. He deferred greatly to Thomas' judgment 
and had implicit faith in his soldiership, so did not order per- 
emptorily. Yet the situation was growing more and more 
painful to him, for many of his other plans hung on a prompt 
movement on the part of Thomas. He sent Grant word he 
would attack on the 7th. But this was suspended. He sent 
word again he would attack as soon as Wilson could get at 
least six thousand cavalry equipped, for that Forrest had at 
least twelve thousand. Grant finally, on the 6th, gave a per- 
emptory order : " Attack Hood at once, and wait no longer 
for a remount of cavalry. There is great danger of delay 
resulting in a campaign back to the Ohio." Thomas replied 
that he would attack at once, though he believed it would 
be hazardous, with his small cavalry force. He did not 
attack. 

Hood had full possession south of Nashville and was run- 
ning cars from Pulaski to Decatur. His cavalry were demon- 
strating on all the surrounding towns, and even looking out 
for a crossing of the Cumberland so as to cut Nashville off 
from the north. As an index to the strain on Grant's mind, 
and his wonderful command of situations, on the very day, 
December 6th, he telegraphed to Thomas to attack, he sent 
word through secret channels to Sherman telling him of out- 
side affairs, where he could strike the coast and what he 
should do ; he also issued orders to Butler, with detailed 
instructions for Weitzel's Fort Fisher expedition ; and minute 
orders to Meade for a westward movement across the Weldon 
railroad. He kept almost individual oversight of the great 
and complicated mechanism in his control, and touched the 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 419 

varied springs, levers, pulleys and wheels with the dexterity 
of a master, that all might work harmoniously and deal simul- 
taneous and incessant blows. 

On December 7th, Stanton notified Grant that the authori- 
ties and the country were in a state of anxious suspense over 
Thomas' delay. Grant called attention to his dispatch ordering 
an attack, and suggested Thomas' suspension if his order was 
not soon obeyed. Yet Grant had infinite faith in Thomas' 
ability to repel attack, and he loved him as a man as well as 
an officer. It was only his seeming slowness to take a bold 
initiative which was now perplexing the Lieutenant General, 
and the impossibility of carrying out other plans which de- 
pended on a clearing up of this desperate Tennessee situa- 
tion. On this date, December 7th, Thomas announced that 
the Confederates had closed the Cumberland river to him at 
Clarkesville. On the 8th, Grant requested that Dodge suc- 
ceed Rosecrans in Missouri, with orders to send all avail- 
able reinforcements to Thomas. He also sent full word to 
Thomas, stimulating him to action, reviewing the situation, 
and defining what depended on his action, how the country 
was aggrieved at his delay, and what relief a glorious victory 
would give. Thomas replied, sketching the situation, re- 
counting his difficulties, and ending with a request for removal 
if that be thought best by Grant or the authorities. Two days 
passed, and Thomas reported that the Confederates had crossed 
the Cumberland, also that an unsuccessful attack had been 
made on Chattanooga. He gave as a reason for postponing 
attack that a severe rain and hailstorm had been raging for 
two days. On the same day Grant sent him another long 
dispatch urging him not to wait to fill his cavalry columns 
nor for favorable weather, and reminding him that if Hood 
got past Nashville he could beat him (Thomas) in a race 
for the Ohio river. He ordered him to delay no longer. 
On this date Grant received word through the Richmond 



420 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

papers that Sherman was within seventy-five miles of Savan- 
nah. And here was where Thomas' delay was cramping 
the Lieutenant General's plans. Canby had been ordered to 
send a large force from the Mississippi to co-operate with 
Sherman, either on the Gulf coast, should he strike it, or on 
the Atlantic coast. But so long as Hood remained in Ten- 
nessee, Canby did not dare deplete his strength at Memphis, 
Vicksburg, or anywhere along the line of the Mississippi river. 
Thomas was fully apprised of this by Stanton. 

At length Grant's patience was exhausted. Not wishing to 
injure the fame of Thomas by summary dismissal, without 
knowing of the situation personally, he resolved to go to the 
scene at Nashville and, in case he found removal necessary, 
he left an order with General Logan to take command in Ten- 
nessee. He started for Nashville on December 14th, but 
when he got to Washington (December 15th), news awaited 
him that Thomas had moved on that day and had attacked 
and beaten Hood. 

While Thomas had permitted Nashville to be invested and 
the surrounding country to be overrun, he had planned a mag- 
nificent battle according to the careful and conservative theories 
of his school. Hood lay before him, his lines stretching from 
the Cumberland above the city to the river below. Cheatham 
held the right, Stewart the left, S. D. Lee the centre. Hood's 
position was admirable. It was upon slopes backed by hills, 
and commanded by fortified prominences, some of which were 
within six hundred yards of the Federal works. He had rail- 
road communication to his rear, and a moving force of two 
brigades of infantry and two of cavalry under Forrest, which 
had been doing irreparable injury to the country and Thomas' 
communications. 

Thomas' left was held by Steedman, his centre by Wood's 
Fourth, (Stanley had been wounded at Harpeth) his right by 
A. J. Smith. Schofield was in reserve ready to support 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 42 I 

Wood. The cavalry was massed on Smith's right Steedman 
had 5000 men, Wood 13,526, Smith 9990, Schofield 9719, 
Wilson from 4000 to 5000 cavalry. Hood's entire force was 
not much in excess of twenty thousand men, but he was 
strongly fortified, and felt able to repel any attack. 

On December 15th, at an early hour and amid a dense fog, 
Steedman moved his left upon the enemy's right. At the same 
hour Wilson's cavalry moved on the enemy's left. Both these 
movements were feints. As soon as Steedman was well out of 
his works, the artillery began to play, and the gunboats joined 
their volleys. Covered by their fire, he deployed on the Mur- 
freesboro pike and hurled his columns on the Confederate right 
flank. Meanwhile, Smith and Wood were massing for an 
attack on the enemy's left, with Schofield in their rear. Steed- 
man is ordered to attack stronger. He is already in the midst 
of a terrific assault and the battle is on in earnest. Hood is 
surprised at the impetuosity and success of the Federals. He 
sends whole brigades to strengthen his imperilled left. Bat- 
teries are run up to sweep the attacking lines. The battle waxes 
hot and deadly. All Hood's energies are directed to Steedman 
and his overmatched ranks. The order is given to fall back, 
and the Federals retire, still keeping up a threatening front. 
The Confederates congratulate themselves on victory. But 
their ears catch the sound of thunder on their left. Thomas 
has started his columns and sent them crashing through Hood's 
extreme left entrenchments. They are even now pressing 
toward his centre. It is nearing noon, and the dense fog has 
lifted. Hood sees the dismounted cavalrymen sweeping in on 
his extreme left, and the infantry of Wood and Smith vying with 
each other in the capture of his outer forts on the Knobs. He 
opens with all his artillery, and every entrenchment sends forth 
a storm of smaller missiles. Wood's Fourth charges in heavy 
column on Montgomery Hill, the strongest Confederate salient, 
and captures it. Hood had fatally weakened his left. Thomas 



422 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

was taking every advantage of his early morning tactics. Hood 
makes haste to recall his brigades from his right. But too 
late ; his left is turned ; his advanced lines there are no longer 
tenable. 

Schofield now pushed his reserve corps well around Hood's 
left and toward his rear. Again the Federals advance, and 
while Hood is forced to shift his lines to meet Schofield, the 
Fourth Corps dashes over his second line of works in front. 
Baffled, bewildered, beaten, but still fighting obstinately, Hood 
yields his entire line of works and is crowded back toward the 
Overton Hills. He loses battery after battery and flag after 
flag. Will his columns break before the resistless Federal 
onsets, before gradually concentrating ranks filled with the en- 
thusiasm of victory? Wood is already beyond the Granny 
White road and has half the Confederate lines in his posses- 
sion. Schofield has scaled the heights two miles beyond Wood, 
and is battling with Lee's and Cheatham's men for a point in 
the Granny White road. Smith's men have captured ridge 
after ridge, hurling conquered division back upon division. 
Wilson is well to the south with his cavalry, feeling for the 
Franklin pike and Hood's rear. Sunset and darkness come to 
Hood's rescue. He is saved until to-morrow, but he has lost 
seventeen guns, twelve hundred prisoners, his entire line of 
works, a vast number of men killed and wounded and, worst 
of all, a battle which he courted and for which he waited till 
waiting must have become irksome. 

Thomas' plans of battle had all been carried out successfully, 
and his losses had not been great. His slowness had come to 
his rescue and he had redeemed provoking tardiness with sweep- 
ing victory. He had been true to his. resources and methods, 
had operated cautiously, acted conscientiously, and there was 
something substantial to speak for it. It was of this victory 
that Grant learned on the morning of December 15th at Wash- 
ington, and over it he joined his congratulations with those of 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 423 

the President and authorities. None were warmer than he in 
their tributes to Thomas' strategy and perseverance, and none 
felt relief from such a load as the old veteran's dispatch gave : 
"Attacked enemy's left this morning ; drove it from the river, 
below city, very nearly to Franklin pike, distance about eight 
miles." Grant need not now go West, nor further entertain the, 
to him, disagreeable thought of disturbing one whose ability he 
admired, whose character he loved, whose methods only had 
become the subject of question. 

All the night Hood was busy forming his lines and fortify- 
ing his position on the Overton Heights, five miles south of 
Nashville. Here he would be more concentrated and stronger 
than before. He was brave, seemingly not discouraged, eager 
for another fray, which he expected on the morrow of Decem- 
ber 1 6th. Thomas too was eager. Cavalry fighting began at 
dawn. Again Thomas pushed Steedman forward on his left. 
The Fourth moved southward along the Franklin pike, feeling 
for the enemy. By noon the Federal columns were in front of 
the Confederate position, and it was apparent that even a 
harder battle than that of the day before must be fought. 
Wood was on Steedman's right, and Schofield and Smith 
further to the right. Thomas reconnoitered the enemy's 
position for a long time. It was not until 3 p. m. that he 
ordered an attack. Again Steedman and Wood were to bear 
the brunt of it. The artillery opened, and they marched up 
the rugged slopes to the assault on the enemy's right. The 
Federal ranks suffered fearfully, but despite the wide gaps 
hewn through them, they clambered up the steep fronts and 
broke over the parapets. Colored troops vied with white in 
this bloody onset. Ere they could plant their flags, the Con- 
federate reserves rose up and poured volleys of musketry into 
the ranks of the exulting Federals. They melted away before 
this merciless close range fire, and at last broke in retreat, 
leaving the ground strewed with dead and wounded. They 



424 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

were rallied at the foot of the hill and stood ready for 
another charge. 

Thomas was off to the right, where McArthur was pushing 
a gallant charge. The Sixteenth had impetuously rushed up 
the slopes amid a raking artillery and musketry fire and, com- 
ing in by the flank, had actually captured the entrench- 
ments against which the Twenty-third Corps was charging. 
The result was most demoralizing to the enemy. McArthur's 
trophies were three Confederate generals, a whole division of 
infantry, a dozen flags and twenty-seven cannon. Federal 
cheers were the signal for an assault all along the lines. And 
now it was more daring and persistent than ever. It was 
carried up and over the entrenchments everywhere. The foe 
went down before it, or broke into ruinous retreat. Guns, 
munitions, flags, prisoners, fell rapidly into the hands of the 
victors. It was nearing nightfall, and Hood was frantically 
engaged in saving what he could from the wreck. But it was 
despairing work, for the Fourth was in pursuit, and did not 
desist till deep darkness fell upon the scene. 

Dawn of the 17th revealed the utter demoralization of 
Hood's retreat. The roads were strewed with arms, accoutre- 
ments and articles of war. The defeat had been crushing and 
the army never rallied. Pursuit brought prisoners continuously. 
Hood was ruined beyond possibility of recovery. On December 
29th, General Thomas, in addressing his army, said : " You 
have diminished the forces of the enemy since it crossed the 
Tennessee river to invade the State, at the least estimate, 
fifteen thousand men, among whom were killed, wounded or 
captured eighteen general officers. Your captures from the 
enemy, as far as reported, amount to sixty-eight pieces of 
artillery, ten thousand prisoners, as many stand of small arms, 
and thirty to forty battle flags." 

Hood called Forrest to his aid and beat a hasty retreat, 
pursued by Wilson, through Columbia and Pulaski to Bain- 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARQH TO THE SEA. 425 

bridge on the Tennessee, where he crossed, on the 27th of 
December, and where Thomas ordered pursuit to cease. 
December 17th was a glorious day for Grant and the country. 
Word came from Thomas of the certainty and magnitude of 
his victory, and at the same time from Sherman that he had 
struck the sea and invested Savannah. The news filled the 
whole North with joy. Grant sent congratulations to both his 
generals and urged Thomas to pursue Hood till he broke him 
entirely up. He was already broken completely up, for his 
retreat beyond the Tennessee was followed by his removal and 
the succession of General Richard Taylor, by the furloughing 
of a great part of his troops, and the transfer of the rest east- 
ward to augment the army now forming to operate against Sher- 
man. Thus the boast of Jefferson Davis that Hood would carry 
the war into the North and redeem Tennessee came to nought 
in a single campaign lasting from November 21st to December 
17th. It had cost a fine army, while Thomas' entire less did 
not exceed ten thousand men, nearly half of which returned to 
the ranks, after recovering from their wounds. Grant ordered 
two hundred shotted guns to be fired into Petersburg on 
December i8th, in honor of Thomas and his splendid victories 
of Nashville, which had clarified the entire Western situation, 
left it without a formidable enemy, and vindicated the wisdom 
of all his grand strategic plans. 

All this time Sherman was pushing his four columns by 
parallel routes through Georgia. He was meeting with little 
opposition, except here and there from State militia and 
Wheeler's cavalry, and was cutting railroads, destroying 
supplies, and carrying consternation to the Confederacy. He 
passed through, or near to, the principal railroad centres, and 
covered a front varying from ten to forty miles in width. The 
wonderful march through an enemy's country and away from 
any base of supplies was full of thrilling incidents, but without 
an action that could be reckoned as a battle. There was no 



4^6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

need for serious deflection, and in a few weeks from the start 
it became apparent that he could make any coast destination 
he might select. By December 10th, he reached the vicinity 
of Savannah, driving the armed enemy into the fortifications 
about that place. 

The city was at once invested. General Hazen, of the Four- 
teenth, crossed the Ogeechee and, on December 13th, captured 
Fort McAllister, after a brief but sanguinary struggle, with one 
hundred and fifty prisoners and twenty-two guns. This fort 
commanded the entrance to Ossabaw Sound. Its capture 
enabled Sherman to open communications with Rear-Admiral 
Dahlgreen, in command of the blockading squadron off Savan- 
nah. Sherman met him and arranged for a combined attack 
on the place. But on the night of the 21st, Hardee evacuated 
the city, crossing to the north side of the Savannah river. 
Sherman entered at once, and found one hundred and sixty- 
seven pieces of artillery and much valuable property. The 
country was electrified with his telegram to the President: "I 
beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, 
with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammu- 
nition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." 
Sherman had at last reached the sea, adding lustre to his name, 
and furnishing for military history one of its most startling 
and intense chapters. Sixty-five thousand men and thirty-five 
thousand animals had obtained abundant food for forty days, 
and had been short in nothing but bread. Their herd of five 
thousand cattle had grown to one of ten thousand. The teams 
were fresh, and not a wagon had been lost. Sherman had 
never been called upon to use more than a skirmish line for 
protection, and his total casualties were 103 killed, 428 wounded, 
and 78 missing. The spirit of his men was superb throughout. 

Starting from his Atlanta base, on November 12th, he had, 
in pursuance of plans largely within his own discretion, but 
wholly in the line of Grant's original scheme of co-operation 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 427 

and concentration, reached a new and more substantial base 
of future operations, and a safe resting place as well. As bear- 
ing on the fortunes of Grant's army, and upon the final result, 
he had interposed a compact army of over sixty thousand men 
between Lee and the Confederacy of the South-west, and given 
to Grant all the advantages of those inner lines of movement 
which the Confederate armies had hitherto enjoyed. The moral 
effect of the march through the heart of the Confederacy, with- 
out serious opposition, was incalculable. It carried panic and 
stimulated clamor everywhere. The Confederate Cabinet con- 
fessed the folly of having urged Hood to disaster in Tennessee, 
by reinstating Johnston in command of all the forces he could 
gather to operate against Sherman and keep him from march- 
ing to Grant's aid at Petersburg. And right nobly did John- 
ston struggle. Uniting everything he could find in the shape 
of armed man and military utensil, he formed a junction with 
Hardee after his escape from Savannah, and the two were there- 
after to retard Sherman's northern movement all they could. 

Grant had wisely prepared for just such an emergency, by 
ordering the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, and the 
use of the latter as a base from which Schofield (called east- 
ward from Nashville) was to push an army of twenty thousand 
men to Goldsboro, to meet Sherman, should he decide to come 
north by land. And now the great problem was uppermost 
as to how Sherman should move; whether by land or water. 
Grant's first impressions were, that he should speedily and di- 
rectly proceed to his aid by water. But speed was found to be 
out of the question, owing to scarcity of transports. To come 
tardily would be to give Lee time to escape from Petersburg, 
for he certainly would not remain, knowing that Grant was in 
receipt of such a large reinforcement. Besides, Johnston had 
now gotten together an army of fifty thousand men in the 
Carolinas. He was therefore a formidable menace on Grant 
in his Petersburg entrenchments, and at the same time a stand- 



428 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ing invitation to Lee to abandon Petersburg and Richmond 
and join him. To destroy Lee's army, and not to dislodge it, 
was, more than ever, Grant's aim. 

All things considered, it was determined that Sherman should 
move northward by land, and hold Johnston to an object, at 
the same time doing all the damage possible to railroads and 
supplies. He was to start on January 15th, 1865, moving his 
cavalry and Slocum's corps toward Augusta. Blair's Seven- 
teenth was sent by water to demonstrate on Charleston. Rains 
prevented the land movement till February 1st. Grover's 
division of the Nineteenth came, in the meantime, to Savannah 
to relieve all of Sherman's forces there. All the Confederate 
militia, from sixteen to sixty, were called out, and the negroes 
were ordered to fell trees and interpose every obstacle possible 
to the Federal march. The deep, sullen rivers, the wide, im- 
penetrable swamps, the thickly timbered spaces, near the sea 
coast, threw the line of march far inland, and made it neces- 
sarily circuitous, slow and dangerous. Wheeler's cavalry was 
vigilant, and turned up at every river crossing, backed by 
infantry detachments. Their efforts were, however, of no avail 
against the confident battalions from the fields of Atlanta and 
Chattanooga. 

The Edisto and Congaree were crossed, Orangeburg was 
reached, and Columbia seized by a brilliant manoeuvre. This 
sealed the fate of Charleston and Fort Sumpter. The retreat- 
ing Confederates fired the cotton bales and public stores in 
Columbia and Charleston, and these cities were well nigh con- 
sumed. Between the injury they themselves inflicted in their 
wild haste and that brought about to bridges, railroads, manu- 
factories of w r arlike supplies, public stores, etc., by the victorious 
Federals, the v/hole country was a waste from Savannah to the 
Roanoke, and from the Alleghenies to the sea. With a wide 
sweep to the west the Yadkin was crossed. Then, by a hurried 
march, Fayetteville, on the Cape Fear, was reached by March 



NASHVILLE AND THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 429 

1 1 th. Here he concentrated, and rested for three days. He 
had all the while been marching in the face of considerable 
opposition. It was a campaign now, and not a peaceful march, 
as that through Georgia had been. Each step forced back the 
detached battalions of Johnston, and helped him to concentrate. 
And again, the whole spirit of motion had changed. He was 
now actively co-operating with Grant. Each must consider 
the fortune of the other in every step now taken. They must 
keep Johnston and Lee apart. They must be ready to spring 
to each other's aid if occasion demanded. Johnston's army 
was a conglomerate of many commands, and not less than fifty 
thousand men. Hardee was in it from Savannah, Beauregard 
from Columbia, Cheatham from Tennessee, Bragg and Hoke 
from Wilmington, Hampton from Richmond, Wheeler from 
Atlanta. It was now prepared to throw itself across Sherman's 
track. 

When Sherman started from Fayetteville for Goldsboro, 
Johnston was at Smithfield. Sherman demonstrated with Slo- 
cum's corps toward Averysborough, while he marched Howard 
direct toward Goldsboro. Johnston fell on to Slocum at Ben- 
tonsville, who resisted the attack till reinforced. Johnston then 
dropped back to Smithfield, leaving his killed and wounded 
behind. He had made desperate battle with Slocum's com- 
mand, and occasioned a Federal loss of sixteen hundred and 
forty-three killed, wounded and missing, w T hile his own was 
two thousand, sixteen hundred of whom became prisoners. 
Sherman now pushed rapidly to Goldsboro, reaching it on 
March 23d, forming a junction there with Schofield and Terry, 
and finding much needed food and rest. On March 27th he 
started for City Point, whither he had been called to a con- 
ference with Grant and the President. After this the co-opera- 
tion of the two armies was close. The grand circle had been 
made, and nearly all the vitality of the Confederacy was within 
reach of the Federal armies. 



430 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



Stoneman was coming in from the west upon Lynchburg. 
Thomas was co-operating with Canby in his attack upon 
Mobile, which fell on April 9th, with a loss of two hundred guns 
and four thousand prisoners. Wilson, with his cavalry corps, 
was raiding Alabama and working untold injury to railroads and 
public stores. Every army was now in the position designated 
by the Lieutenant General, and on March 24th he issued to 
Meade the order which was to swing the Army of the Potomac 

west of Petersburg and compel 
its evacuation as well as that of 
Richmond. 

The duty of Sherman was now 
to watch Johnston closely. He 
was lying at Smithfield not far 
from Goldsboro. It was equally 
Johnston's duty to watch Sher- 
man, and keep himself where Lee 
could reach him. There the two 
armies rested till the result of 
Grant's movement became 
cen. stoneman. known. We have already learned 

what that result was. Too much praise cannot be given Sherman 
for his spendid northern march of four hundred miles, his 
crossing of seven deep difficult rivers, his arrival at the place, 
and almost at the time designated, and his holding of Johnston, 
with fifty thousand men at Smithfield while Grant was giving 
the finishing blows to Lee's army of Northern Virginia. 
The Lieutenant-General's knowledge of men was equal to the 
grandeur of his plans and the irresistible vigor of his combi- 
nations and movements. 




CHAPTER XXL 

PEACE. 

THE surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox, April 9th, 
1865, was the signal for the surrender of all the other 
armed forces of the great rebellion. It would take a little time 
for the news to reach all the Confederate commands, and there 
would yet be some hesitation, some movements in a spirit of 
sheer desperation, some chaffering about terms, but the war 
ended there, and peace was assured. Grant reached Washing- 
ton on April 1 3th, and at once set about reducing the military 
expenses of the government. His grand work, his victory, 
was for the good of the nation, and now he would prove that 
" Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." 

On consultation with the President and Secretary of War, 
an announcement was made to the country April 1 3th, to stop 
all drafting and recruiting in the loyal states ; to curtail all 
purchases of muniments and supplies and reduce the military 
establishment ; to reduce the number of officers to the actual 
needs of the service ; to remove all military restrictions on trade 
and commerce, so far as may be consistent with public safety. 

This was the country's written guarantee that peace was 
sure, the official proclamation which fixed and crowned the 
grand results of four years of sacrifice. A yearning nation 
now broke out into rejoicing. From sea to sea there went up 
one voice of jubilation and thanksgiving, and all the land burst 
into glorious illumination. Ecstacy never reached sublimer 
heights nor assumed more impressive forms. The next day, 
April 14th, it was announced that Grant would be present at 

411 



432 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



the theatre, in the evening, with President Lincoln ; but he had 
not seen his family for a long time and started for Burlington, 
N. J., where his children were at school. That night the 
nation was plunged into gloom by the assassination of its 
loved President, in the theatre, by an actor named John 
Wilkes Booth, and by the attempted assassination of Sec. 




PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



of State, Wm. H. Seward, by an associate conspirator named 
Payne. Grant was at once telegraphed for by the Secre- 
tary of War, and he returned to Washington that night. 
The next day, April 15th, Lincoln expired and Vice-President 
Johnson was inaugurated. The time was portentous, the 
whirl of events rapid and demoralizing. No one knew the 
breadth of that foul conspiracy. The shock of murder in high 



PEACE. 



433 



place, "the deep damnation of that taking off," the sudden 
transition from triumphal cheer to funereal tear, the mistrust of 
a new administration, the pour of unforeseen, responsible and 
delicate duties, rendered the presence of the Lieutenant-General 
in Washington a comfort and necessity. 

On April ioth,the day after Lee's surrender, Grant sent word 




WILLIAM H. SEWARD 

to Sherman at Goldsboro to "push on and finish the job with 
Lee and Johnston's armies." Sherman immediately moved 
upon Johnston at Smithfield. But Johnston was now in no 
mood for a fight. He beat a hasty retreat through Raleigh, 
which place Sherman occupied on the 13th. On the 14th, a 
message, dictated by Jefferson Davis, came through Johnston to 
28 



434 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Sherman, asking that the civil authorities be permitted to make 
arrangements to end the war. Sherman replied that he had 
full power to conduct and accept a surrender. On the 16th. 
Johnston agreed to meet Sherman between the two armies. 
The interview became a long talk about terms, to which neither 
party agreed. Another meeting was had on the 18th, at which 
terms were agreed upon. They were lengthy and unfortunate, 
for while they embraced the surrender of all the Confederate 
armies, they committed the government to a course in the 
future, which would have amounted to a dangerous concession 
of its prerogatives. Both Sherman and Johnston felt that the 
terms were too far beyond their authority as army officers, too 
legislative and political in their scope, to be final without the 
sanction of the civil authorities. So Sherman sent a copy to 
Washington for such sanction. Grant received them on the 
night of April 21st, and immediately sent them to the Secre- 
tary of War, with a note suggesting that they be acted upon 
in cabinet without delay. He saw their importance, as well as 
the danger of approving them. That same night a cabinet 
meeting was called and Sherman's terms were repudiated 
unanimously. The President and Secretary of War were 
bitterly outspoken in their dissent. They regarded his conces- 
sions as highly dangerous, and his assumption of authority as 
unprecedented. Grant generously came to Sherman's defence, 
and while he did not sanction the terms, he defended his lieu- 
tenant against all imputations, and declared that whatever his 
errors of judgment, his motives were beyond question. 

Grant was instructed by the President to give notice to 
Sherman of the official repudiation of his terms of surrender, 
and to command him to resume hostilities at the earliest possible 
moment. To make all sure, he was ordered forthwith to the 
scene to take control of operations in person. Instructions 
were also sent in various directions to Sherman's subordinates 
to disregard his orders. Starting on the 22d, Grant made all 



peace. 435 

haste toward Raleigh, anxious to save the reputation of his 
trusted lieutenant, and still more anxious to bring the military 
status to where Lee's surrender left it. It was a moment of 
supreme danger. One false step now, one hour of unnecessary 
delay, might undo all that Appomattox had done and reopen 
the smouldering fires of war. As Grant hurried toward Sher- 
man, he ordered Sheridan to push to Greensboro, North Caro- 
lina, with all his cavalry and a corps of infantry. There was 
to be no escape for Johnston and no terms but those which 
were unconditional. He reached Raleigh on April 24th, and 
in a delicate manner informed Sherman of the disapproval of 
his terms. Sherman at once accepted the situation and noti- 
fied Johnston that their agreement had not been sanctioned by 
the authorities, and that the only terms of surrender which 
could be accepted would be those which Lee had signed at 
Appomattox. At the same time he sent word that the armis- 
tice would end in forty-eight hours. Johnston referred these 
dispatches to Jefferson Davis, who ordered that officer to dis- 
band the Confederate infantry, and beat a retreat with all his 
mounted force and such artillery as could be taken along. 
Johnston ignored this last and unworthy order from the Con- 
federate President. He could not conscientiously sacrifice his 
sturdy footmen to the privileged riders, the veteran soldiery 
to the civic officials. He would make no mounted body guard 
for the fugitive President and cabinet, to be pursued remorse- 
lessly through the south leaving another trail of blood and 
destruction. So he wrote another set of terms in consonance 
with those presented by Grant to Lee, and asked for another 
conference on the 26th. These were signed on that day, and 
he surrendered thirty-one thousand two hundred and forty -three 
men, who were paroled, together with cannon, small arms and 
munitions. 

General Grant acted with great kindness and delicacy toward 
Sherman during these transactions. He did not appear in the 



436 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

final interview with Johnston. While he supervised all of 
Sherman's acts and permitted nothing to be done without his 
approval, he signed no papers except the last on which he 
wrote "approved" over his own signature. It is said that John- 
ston did not even know of his presence in Raleigh. Grant then 
returned to Washington to find the sentiment in a flame over 
Sherman's blunder, and his reputation under a cloud of doubt 
and aspersion. Again he threw himself into the breach, and 
this time was forced to stay the storm of excitement and in- 
dignation by using for his friend the shield of his own reputa- 
tion, declaring that Sherman's loyalty was as undoubted as his 
own. The fact undoubtedly was that Sherman's mistake in 
undertaking to legislate for the government in these terms of 
surrender was due to a pardonable feeling of leniency in the 
moment of victory, which the diplomacy of Johnston and 
Breckinridge, shrewder and less conscionable than his own, 
took greedy advantage of. 

As we have seen, Mobile fell into Canby's hands on April 
9th. After Lee's surrender, Stoneman swung his cavalry 
column from Lynchburg to Johnston's rear, where he was 
doing an immense amount of damage when notified of the sur- 
render. Wilson, with a command of twelve thousand and five 
hundred cavalry, had swept Alabama and Georgia, capturing all 
the towns in his course, and engaging in a severe night battle, 
April 1 6th, which gave him Augusta. This was the last battle 
of the war. On the 21st, Macon surrendered, with sixty field 
guns and twelve thousand militia, including Howell Cobb and 
four other generals. Here Wilson's cavalry campaign was 
ended by news of the armistice between Johnston and Sherman. 
Dick Taylor surrendered to Canby, on May 4th. On May 1 ith, 
Jefferson Davis was captured, in female disguise, at Irwins- 
ville, Ga. Kirby Smith, beyond the Mississippi, remained 
defiant till he heard of Davis' capture, and the movement of a 
heavy force to his department, under Sheridan, when he left 



43 8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

his army to disband of its own volition. Buckner surrendered 
the Confederate remnant on May 26th. Thus disappeared the 
last organized Confederate force from the territory of the United 
States. Every man who had borne arms against the govern- 
ment was a prisoner of war. The number paroled, between 
April 9th and May 26th, was 174,223 men. 

History does not record so speedy and complete a collapse 
of such a gigantic rebellion. It was due, more than anything, 
to the culmination of Grant's plans as he had shaped them 
from the start, which brought all his forces to bear upon vital 
situations, and to gradually close like a vice, literally forcing 
surrender or annihilation, as well as to the chivalric terms em- 
braced in his articles of capitulation and surrender. The break 
at Appomattox was conclusive and final. All else of the Con- 
federacy stood aghast and paralyzed, confronted and over- 
shadowed, unable to turn or to defy. And yet those terms — 
of which Pollard, the Confederate historian, says : " He (Grant) 
conducted the surrender with as much simplicity as possible, 
avoided sensation, and spared everything that might wound 
the feelings or imply the humiliation of a vanquished foe. Such 
conduct was noble. Before the surrender General Grant had 
expressed to his own officers his intention not to require the 
same formalities as are required in a surrender between the 
forces of two foreign nations or belligerent powers, and to 
exact no conditions for the mere purpose of humiliation" — 
those terms, forbearing and generous in all their provisions, 
covered all the causes of war. Arms were laid down. Seces- 
sion was abandoned. The old sovereignty and flag were 
acknowledged. The new Confederate sovereignty was repu- 
diated. Abolition of slavery was acquiesced in. Political 
reinstatement was sought. Amnesty asked. 

There was acknowledgment everywhere, North and South, 
at home and abroad, of the unexampled skill and puissance 
of Grant's leadership, and of the wisdom and chivalry of his 



peace. 439 

final dealings with the vanquished foe. He had made war 
earnest and severe. He had fought and beaten every leading 
Confederate general. He had conquered, captured and anni- 
hilated armies. He had never been driven from the field, and 
had never taken a backward step in a campaign, except when 
he withdrew from Holly Springs to find another way to Vicks- 
burg. He had ever been daring in his strategy, quick in his 
actions, terrible in his energy, and crushing in his blows. Yet 
he was never exultant, never ungenerous. And for this his foes 
now admired him. This helped them to bear the humiliation 
of defeat; this reconciled them to a new destiny; this taught 
them that in their conqueror they might find their most un- 
swerving and safest friend. So they joined their voices of 
praise with that of the North and the world, and helped to 
magnify that character which was the modest, placid centre of 
a wider admiration, deeper respect, and more unbounded con- 
fidence, than any other in military history. 

All that had been in Grant's career, up to and including 
Chattanooga, was an earnest of what came about when the 
country resolved to place its fortune in the hands of a Lieu- 
tenant-General. So all that made up the career of that high 
and potential official was a prelude to a destiny which, if not 
so marked and exciting, was even wider, more intricate, and 
fraught with deeper care. He had commanded millions of 
armed men, had invented policies, had foreseen and forced 
results, had made his cause triumphant, had dismissed his foes 
without anger, had conquered and appeased, won and not 
estranged. All the while he had grown in the confidence of 
those who trusted him, and in the respect of the open foe. No 
man had ever graduated in a more thoroughly practical school 
with higher honors. It would seem as if Providence had been 
raising up one for the great emergency of peace which, now 
that it was on, was to be made enduring only by the exercise 
of many of the qualities which gave brilliancy and decisiveness 



44-0 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to field campaigns, and drowned rebellion in the floods of final 
victory. Two years of halting, distrustful, unsatisfactory, 
almost discordant peace, made the country long again for a 
leader of catholic spirit, generous impulse, original force, firm 
purpose, consistent conviction, knowledge of situations, dignity 
of character, freedom from faction, and supreme trustworthiness. 
And such an one was already in the foreground. 

The period immediately after the suppression of the rebellion, 
which should have been one of rest for General Grant, was 
really one of labor and anxiety. The gathering of a strong 
force under Sheridan to bring the Confederates west of the 
Mississippi to terms, involved far more. The attempt to 
establish a foreign Empire in Mexico, under Maximilian, at a 
time when the back of the United States was turned, and its 
hands bound, was regarded as an act of open hostility. Grant 
took high ground in this matter, and the prompt avowal of his 
sentiments, together with the threat involved in Sheridan's 
movement, did more to bring about a peaceful solution of the 
Mexican question than any diplomacy between the two 
countries. He may justly be regarded as the savior of our 
neighboring Republic from monarchical dynasty at a time 
when it was helpless in itself. 

Then came the gathering of the Federal armies at convenient 
places and their disbanding. This was important work. It 
must be done with judgment and despatch, for every day of 
unnecessary service meant a great loss to the government. 
The Army of the Potomac marched to Washington and, joined 
with most of the Atlantic forces, submitted to a final parade 
and review, It was probably the most imposing scene ever 
witnessed in the Capital. On June 30th, 1865, it was disbanded. 
The mighty hosts of citizen soldiery, which had learned and 
practiced the arts of war, again merged with their fellow beings 
in the happier pursuits of beaming peace. 

Among the first questions of peace was the penalty to be 



PEACE. 441 

paid by those who had engaged in armed rebellion against the 
government. Trials for treason were instituted against con- 
spicuous leaders, civil and military, Lee being among the latter. 
Grant considered that army officers who had surrendered, and 
privates as well, were protected by their paroles. On Lee's 
appeal to him, he went to the President and not being able to 
reach him by argument or protest, threatened to resign his 
commission in the army if the paroles he had solemnly granted 
in accordance with the powers vested in him as commander 
were violated by the civil authorities. The proceedings against 
Lee were abandoned. To the very last Grant upheld the 
generous and humanitarian terms he had proposed to his con- 
quered foemen, and upon whose acceptance they had laid 
down their arms. 

On the 25th of July, 1866, Grant was promoted to the full 
grade of General in the army, a recognition of his ability and 
services, and a mark of honor, more substantial and better 
suited to his quiet tastes, than princely gift, college degree, or 
popular ovation. Perhaps there had not been in all the country 
a closer student of the work of reconstruction, now going on 
in a very unsatisfactory way, owing to the growing discord 
between the executive and legislative branches of the govern- 
ment. As the head of the army he stood ready to co-operate 
with any plan that could be agreed upon. When the recon- 
struction Act of March, 1867, was passed, he reorganized the 
military districts, chose commanders suited to each, and drafted 
full instructions, in which he counseled adherence to law 
blended with moderation and forbearance toward the Southern 
people. Now that the sword was no longer in his hand he 
would not deal blows, not even inflict pressure, but would 
administer law in the spirit of a thoughtful, kindly disposed 
magistrate. 

On August 1 2th, 1867, President Johnson made General 
Grant his Secretary of War ad interim. He accepted with re- 



442 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

luctance, for he saw no need of removing one of "the real 
patriotism, firmness and ability," of Stanton, and even lodged 
with the President a written protest against it. Had he fully 
seen, or even suspected, that President Johnson was about to 
use him, the better to maintain his hostile attitude toward the 
Senate as a part of the appointing power, he would never have 
accepted. Not seeing nor suspecting this, but fearful that the 
place, which was at that time all important, might fall into the 
hands of some unpatriotic and dangerous manipulator, and 
further fearful that every plan of reconstruction and restoration 
would be broken off to the great injury of the South, he took 
the position, though it intensified the burdens already on his 
shoulders. Of the difficulties that beset his administration of 
the office, which he held for five months, of the embarrassments 
of the political situation, of the increased hostility between the 
President and Congress, of the development on the part of the 
President of a policy of reconstruction so selfish and narrow 
as to greatly discourage the work in hand — of these, as bearing 
on the political situation, we speak more appropriately in the 
next chapter. 

But as to the strict duties of his office, or rather offices, for 
he was both Secretary of War and General-in-Chief, he was 
scarcely seated till the President brought on a clash by remov- 
ing Sheridan from one of the five military districts into which 
the South had been divided. This district had New Orleans 
for its centre. It had grown dissatisfied and turbulent in pro- 
portion to the growth of the President's hostility to Congress. 
Its condition made severe administration necessary, and Sheri- 
dan was meeting the emergency with spirit and fairness, as the 
laws stood. But he was dismissed by Johnson, on August 
17th. On that day Grant put on file an eloquent protest, in 
which he insisted that all military, political, pecuniary and 
patriotic reasons were against the President's action ; that it 
would be a cruel blow at one who was doing his civil duties 



peace. 443 

faithfully and intelligently ; that the removal would be inter- 
preted by factional Southern elements as an effort to defeat the 
laws of Congress and would embolden them to renewed oppo- 
sition to the government. It was all in vain. Sheridan was 
sacrificed, and ten days after, General Sickles, who was con- 
ducting affairs in the Second Military District, composed of 
the Carolinas, in a way to secure the confidence of all, was 
similarly slaughtered, in the face of an equally forcible protest 
by Grant Then followed the removal of Pope, whose district 
embraced Georgia and Alabama The President gave no sat- 
isfactory reasons for these removals. He seemed to be dealing 
blind, promiscuous blows, in a spirit of spite, at the Congress 
and its principle and plan of reconstruction. In that they fell 
upon Grant's trusted subordinates, interfered with his admin- 
istration of affairs, tended to anarchy, and worked only injury 
to those they were designed to please, it can well be seen how 
trying the situation became to one so anxious to preserve peace 
as he, and so earnestly desirous of securing to the Southern 
people every right accorded to them by the laws of the coun- 
try. Still he bore these unreasonable interferences, these ap- 
proaches to insult, with his characteristic equanimity, and kept 
steadily on instructing the new incumbents and co-operating 
with them in the work of restoration. 

Great as was the debt of gratitude which the loyal States 
owed to General Grant for crushing armed rebellion, all the 
States, North and South, were now under one equally great for 
his pre-eminent ability in piloting them through a chaos as 
dangerous to unity and happiness as war itself. When he 
entered the war office in August, 1867, the reconstruction 
acts of the previous July were just going into operation. State 
conventions were called to frame constitutions, voters were 
being registered, all the requisite steps for future membership 
in the Union were being taken. Whether as Secretary of War 
or General-in-Chief, the demands on him were momentary and 



444 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

unprecedented, to apply new statutes, solve complicated prob- 
lems, reconcile disputed jurisdictions, set:le conflicts between 
rival classes and opposite colors, appease bitter factions, insure 
order, and evoke definite policies. It was a task of wonderful 
delicacy and to which no man was equal, unless he had the 
confidence of all, a strictly judicial mind, and was the pos- 
sessor of powers almost imperia' in their proportions. He must 
be without fear, firm and kind, broad and patriotic, and must 
never for a moment lose sight of the end, which was to con- 
struct again a solid political edifice out of the ruins of the 
Confederacy and fasten it to its old moorings under the national 
flag, where peace, contentment and prosperity should be com- 
mon to every citizen. 

He was tried not even so much by these outward difficulties 
as by those nearer and within. Day by day the breach grew 
wider between the President and Congress. He was the sub- 
ject of severe criticism by the Republican press for holding 
office under the circumstances. The President was striving to 
entangle him with his policy and was hampering him at even- 
turn ; indeed, was using his great name and influence as a 
thong with which to beat back the Congress and force submis- 
sion or cowardly compromise. Under all these embarrass- 
ments and provocations, he performed his duties with 
singular ability, vigor and success, made few blunders, 
maintained the dignity and esprit of his office, and pre- 
served, in the midst of intense partisan heat, a caution, 
patience and urbanity, which were the admiration of friend 
and foe alike, and without which no end but that of anarchy 
were possible. 

No period of his eventful and hard-worked life was busier. 
On the battle-field he had been known to write and dictate forty 
dispatches and orders in a day. Here the correspondence and 
documents which emanated from his pen were far greater in 
volume, and of equal importance. They all show the same 



peace. 445 

keen appreciation of situations, clearness of judgment, and 
felicity of style. He mastered details, strove for reforms, and 
administered so earnestly and happily in the midst of chaotic 
surroundings that even President Johnson was forced to say in 
a message to the Senate giving reasons for the suspension of 
Stanton, that " Salutary reforms have been introduced by the 
Secretary ad interim (Grant) and great reductions of expenses 
have been affected under his administration of the war depart- 
ment, to the saving of millions to the Treasury." His annual 
report to Congress was an admirable summary of what he had 
done in the way of placing the department on a peace footing, 
and in it he does not fail to credit the zeal and worth of his sub- 
ordinates, just as when they had led their men gallantly in 
battle. Of the district commanders he says : " I am pleased 
to say, that the commanders of the five military districts have 
executed their difficult trusts faithfully, and without bias from 
any judgment of their own as to the merit or demerit of the 
law they are executing." This report fully proved that he 
could be as exact, concise, clear and forcible in a state paper 
as in a field order or battle summary. 

Grant's appointment as Secretary of War was only ad interim ; 
that is, temporarily, and until a successor could be agreed 
upon. On December 12th, 1867, Johnson sent a message to 
the Senate giving his reasons for the removal of Stanton. On 
January 14th. 1868, the Senate refused to sanction the removal 
of Stanton, and so notified the President and General Grant. 
Grant construed this to mean that his mission was at an end. 
He therefore gave the place up to Stanton. This brought him 
into controversy with the President, whose purposes in appoint- 
ing him now became plain. The controversy grew pointed and 
bitter, and had direct bearing on the political situation, as we 
shall hereafter see, as well as on the reputations of the two 
disputants. So fixed had the President become in his deter- 
mination to control the military function of the government, 



446 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

that he could not brook Stanton's return under the construction 
placed upon the tenure of office Act by Grant. He charged 
Grant with having promised to hold on, in spite of the verdict 
of the Senate, until the matter could be settled in the courts. 
Grant repudiated any such agreement, and told the President 
in cabinet meeting — here we use the language of Mr. Brown- 
ing a member of the cabinet — " that on examining the tenure 
of office Act, he had come to the conclusion that if the Senate 
should refuse to concur in the suspension, Mr. Stanton would 
thereby be reinstated, and that he, Grant, could not continue 
thereafter to act as Secretary of War ad interim without sub- 
jecting himself to fine and imprisonment and that he came 
over on Saturday to inform the President of this change in his 
mind and did so inform him." Thus the question of veracity 
between the President and Grant may be said to be settled out 
of the mouth of a third party, and that of one of the Presi- 
dent's friends. The President emerged from the controversy 
convicted of ambitions which he endeavored to support by in- 
ventions or perversions. He had found Grant too firm to yield 
to his brutal methods, too astute to be deceived further as to 
his aims, and altogether an overmatch for him in interpreting 
the Tenure Act. 

One might suppose that the ungenerous and unfair treat- 
ment received by Grant from the President would awaken a 
desire for revenge should opportunity offer. But when that 
opportunity came, as it did soon after by the impeachment of 
the President, Grant proceeded quietly with the administration 
of his trusts as general-in-chief, and never turned aside to 
encourage or complicate the proceedings. He interested him- 
self more warmly than ever in advancing reconstruction, kept 
the peace as unbroken as possible, and soon saw State consti- 
tutions rising out of tumult, and State organizations pre- 
senting themselves for readmission. But for his steadiness 
of purpose in the midst of confusion, and the calmness of 



peace. 447 

his determination to re-habilitate and restore, the country 
would not have witnessed the spectacle of a fully re-United 
States ready and willing to participate in the next election for 
President. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT — FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 

March 4th, 1869-March 3d, 1873. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT, 111., President. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Ind., Vice-President. 



Congresses. 








Sessions. 












( 1 March 4th, 1869-April 10th, 1869 (E 


<tra Session) 


Forty -first Congress. . . 




. . < 2. Dec 


ember 6th, 
ember 5th, 


1869-July 15th 
1870-March 3d 


1870. 
, 1871. 










1 3 Dec 










(1. March 4th, 187 


i-April 20th, 1871 (Extra Session). 


Forty-second Congres 




. -< 2 Dec 


;mber 4th, 
;mber 2d, : 


1871-June 10th 
872-March 3d, 


, !8 7 2. 

1873- 










(.3 Dec 








ELECTORAL VOTE.* 














Republican 


Democrat. 




Basis of 




Ulysses S. 


Schuyler Horatio 


Francis P 


States. 


127^81. 


Vote 


Grant, III. 


Col/ax, Ind. Seymour 


N.Y 


Blair, Mo 


Alabama, .... 


6 


8 


8 


8 








Arkansas, . . . 


3 


. 5 


5 


5 








California, . 


3 


5 


5 


5 








Connecticut, . . 


4 


6 


6 


6 








Delaware, . . 


1 


3 






3 




3 


Florida, . . . 


1 


3 


3 


3 








Georgia, . . . 


7 


9 






9 




9 


Illinois, .... 


H 


16 


*x6 


16 








Indiana, .... 


n 


13 


13 


13 


. . 




, 


Iowa, . . . 


6 


8 


8 








. . 


Kansas, . . . 


1 


3 


3 


3 








Kentucky, . . . 


9 


11 






11 




11 


1 .ouisiana, . 


5 


7 






7 




7 


Maine, .... 


5 


7 


7 


7 






. . 


Maryland, . . 


5 


7 






7 




7 


Massachusetts, 


10 


12 


12 


12 








Michigan, . 


6 


8 


8 


8 


. , 




. . 


Minnesota, . . . 


2 


4 


4 


4 


. . 




. . 


Mississippi, . . . 


5 


7 






. . 




. . 


Missouri, . . . 


9 


11 


11 


11 


. . 




. . 


Nebraska, . . 


1 


3 


3 


3 


. . 




. . 


Nevada, . . 


1 


3 


3 


3 








New Hampshire, 


3 


5 


5 


5 








New Jersey, . . 
New \ ork, . 


5 


7 




. . 


7 




7 


31 


33 


. . 


. . 


33 




33 


North Carolina, . 


7 


9 


9 


9 








Ohio, . ... 


*9 


21 


21 


21 






. . 


Oregon, . . 


1 


3 






3 




3 


Pennsylvania, 


24 


c5 


26 


26 


. . 




. . 


Rhode Island, . . 


2 


4 


4 


% 


. . 






South Carolina, . 


4 


6 


6 








Tennessee, . . . 


8 


10 


10 


10 






. ♦ 


Texas, .... 


4 


6 






. . 




. . 


"Vermont, . . . 


3 


5 


5 


5 


. . 






Virginia, 


8 


10 






. . 




• < 


"West Virginia, . 


3 


5 


5 


5 








Wisconsin, . . . 


6 


8 


8 


8 








Totals, . 


243 


3i7 


214 


214 


80 




80 


* Popular Vote. 


—Grant . 3, 


015,071 


, 26 States. 


Seymour 


2,709,613; 8 States. 


Not voting, 


3 States. 






















THE CABIN 








Secretary of State 
Secretarjr of Trea 










E 


B. W 

S. Bo 


ishburne, 111. 


?ury, 








.... Geo. 


ltwell, Mass 


Secretary of War, 










Jc 


hn A. 

lolph 


Rawlins, 111. 


Secretary of Navy 










A( 


E. Borie, Pa. 


Secretary of Inter 
Attorney-General, 
Postmaster-Genera 


cr, . . . 








J< 


icob E 
E. R 


) Cox, Ohio. 












Hoar. Mass 


J, . .",*. 








'. '. *. '. '. '. '. j.~A Creswe'll, Md. 



44S 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 449 

The administration of President Andrew Johnson, successor 
to the lamented Lincoln, had not been pleasing to the Repub- 
lican party, whose majority was large in both Houses of Con- 
gress. The most important measures before the country were 
those looking to reconstruction and admission of the States 
which had seceded from the Union. The Congress claimed 
the right to legislate for their admission, and passed reconstruc- 
tion laws designed to assure to the chaotic States the protec- 
tion of the national government, and prescribing the terms on 
which they should renew their allegiance. 

President Johnson took issue with this method of carrying 
on reconstruction, and broke with his party, his claim being 
that there was enough power in the President to grant 
amnesty and insure peace, and that the seceded States ought 
to be left to the management of their own affairs, even though 
they had not as yet returned to the Union. 

The breach between the President and Congress widened, 
till the attitude of the former became one of almost open 
defiance, and he narrowly escaped a verdict of guilty in a high 
court of impeachment which sat from May 5th, to 26th, 1868. 
General Grant was a participant in the early part of the events 
which led to impeachment of the President, though not of his 
own volition. In nothing did the President and Senate differ 
so much as in the power of appointing officials to and remov- 
ing them from office. This led to the Tenure of Office Act, 
which limited the President's power over removals from office. 

In the face of this act he removed Stanton from his position 
as Secretary of War (Aug. 12th, 1867), and, in order to disarm 
criticism as much as possible, appointed Grant as his succes- 
sor ad interim. That the appointment was an excellent one all 
parties agreed. But it was soon seen that it was not made 
with the best of motives, and instead of allaying it only 
increased the agitation. The real point at issue was the Presi- 
dent's power to remove Stanton, and this point could not be 

29 



450 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



covered up by the appointment of a successor, no matter how 
acceptable he might be to all parties. 

Grant's position became a very delicate one. He was thrown 
open to hostile criticism by friends of the President and the 
Senate. With no leaning toward any faction, he was receiving 
the cross-fire of all factions. This caused him to look closely 
into the provisions of the Tenure of Office Act, and he was not 
long in making up his mind what to do in case the Senate 
should refuse to concur in the President's removal of Stanton 
The President hoped that Grant would hold on, notwithstand- 
ing any action the Senate might take, till the controversy could be 

settled by the courts. 
But Grant's interpre- 
tation of the Act was 
that if the Senate re- 
fused to sanction 
Stanton's removal, he 
(Stanton) was re-in- 
stated in office, and he 
(Gran t) was out of 
office, and could not 
be made to serve. 
The Senate did refuse 
to sanction the Presi- 
dent's removal of 
Stanton, and he as- 
sumed the duties of 
secretary stanton. his office again, 

whereupon Grant sent in. his resignation. 

This action, in keeping with the strict letter of the law, 
incensed the President, who charged Grant with failing to live 
up to an understanding that he was to hold on to the position 
till the courts decided the question, or resign before the Senate 
could take action on Stanton's removal, so as to place the 
vacant office back under the disposal of the President. 




GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 45 I 

Grant's reply to this charge of the President showed more 
feeling than any paper he had ever issued. He denied the 
President's statements in toto, and expressed astonishment at 
the boldness of his charges, and then he adds: "You know 
we parted on Saturday, the nth ult, without any promise on 
my part, either express or implied, that I would hold on to the 
office of Secretary of War ad interim, against the action of 
the Senate ; or, declining to do so myself, would surrender it 
to you before such action was had ; or, that I would see you 
at any fixed time on the subject." After going on to say that 
for him to have pursued any other course than the one he 
did would have been in violation of law, and would have 
subjected him to fine and perhaps imprisonment, he concludes: 
" When my honor as a soldier, and integrity as a man, have 
been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but 
regard this whole matter, from beginning to end, as an attempt 
to involve me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitated 
to assume the responsibility, and thus to destroy my character 
before the country. I am, in a measure, confirmed in this con- 
clusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey orders 
from the Secretary of War, my superior and your subordinate." 

This explicit denial and spirited vindication, only incensed 
the President further, and added bitterness to the controversy. 
But, in the end, there were few unwilling to admit that Grant 
did right in resigning, and thus escaping lawsuit and perhaps 
imprisonment or, at least, a series of entanglements, which 
seemed inevitable had he proved as contumacious as the 
President wished him to. 

In accepting the position of Secretary of War ad interim, 
Grant stepped into the breach between the Senate and 
President, actuated solely by the thought that there was great 
need of its management in strict accordance with his army 
departments, pending a struggle which bade fair to be hot and 
protracted. Had he been over sensitive, or afraid of responsi- 



452 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

bility and personal detraction, he would have declined his 
doubtful ad interim honors, and left public affairs to drift 
toward confusion. But he was a patriot, and forgot his private 
annoyances for the public good. He took the position, and 
held it for five months. He resisted, with proper and decided 
efforts, the executive action which was daily widening the 
newly opened breach between the contesting sections of the 
country. He remonstrated against the removal of Sheridan, 
at New Orleans, and wrote to the President, "Allow me to say, 
as a friend desiring peace and quiet — the welfare of the whole 
country, North and South — that it is, in my opinion, more than 
the loyal people (I mean those who supported the Government 
during the great rebellion), will quietly submit to, to see the 
very man of all others whom they have expressed confidence 
in, removed." But Sheridan " had to go." Still Grant held 
on, for he saw that work had to be done. 

His industry while ad interim Secretary was untiring. The 
department needed overhauling. Retrenchment, the principa' 
business of the nation for years following, was begun by 
Grant in a manner so judicious and thorough that it served as 
a model for all subsequent economists. He says, in his report, 
" Retrenchment was the first subject to attract my attention." 
So vigorously was the reform broom applied, that in five 
months of official life he worked a saving to the Government 
of over |6,ooo,ooo. 

Thus he stood, firm as a rock, amid fierce political storm 
and during an emergency fraught with the most alarming 
symptoms. The body politic was in an excited and inflamma- 
ble state. The least mistake would lead to deplorable results. 
To yield supinely to the President would have been a dan- 
gerous precedent in the direction of executive innovation. The 
hatred of the contending powers was as relentless as the hos- 
tility of Rome for Carthage in the olden time. It was fortu- 
nate, looking back to the situation from a standpoint twenty 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 453 

years away, for both the liberty and integrity of the republic, 
that the Secretary ad interim was the real power in the land. 
Holding with firm grasp the army, having the profoundest 
respect for law, keeping step to the loyal needs of the hour, 
he declined to second the President in his open disregard of 
valid statutes, and thus by his patriotic conduct held the 
nation to its constitutional restraints. The subsequent per- 
sistency of the President led to his impeachment. 

All this time Republican sentiment had been shaping for the 
convention which was to nominate a candidate for President, 
and it was growing clear that though Grant had been esteemed 
by his grateful countrymen the only soldier worthy to bear for 
the second time the honors of Lieutenant-General of the Armies 
of the United States, occasion demanded that he receive the 
highest honors of State. Though not a Republican in any 
partisan sense, he was in accord with the spirit of that party. 
He was level-headed, true, and idolized by the soldier element 
of the community. Moreover, his knowledge of Southern 
character and affairs would make him an invaluable adjunct 
to the Congress in carrying on its delicate and difficult work 
of reconstruction. There was no more available man for 
President. The country would only be helping to pay its debt 
of gratitude by making him its chief executive. 

So strongly had the tide run in his favor, that a National 
Convention of Soldiers and Sailors met at Chicago, on May 
19th, 1868, and nominated General Grant for the Presidency. 
It was composed of officers and men who had borne an active 
part in the great contest for the preservation of the Republic. 
The next day, the Republican National Convention, sitting 
also in Chicago, ratified the former nomination, and made him 
the nominee of the party with entire unanimity and amid un- 
bounded enthusiasm. At the same time Schuyler Colfax, of 
Indiana, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency. The presen- 
tation of Grant's name by his companions in arms was natural 



454 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and appropriate. It was but the appreciation and renewal of a 
leadership they had followed through the fires of war, and 
which had led them, amid peril, to victory and peace. His 
nomination by a regular convention of the party was but the 
recognition and ratification of a fact. Many organizations in 
all sections of the Union, and without reference to party, had 
signified their desire for his candidacy. 

The platform he was asked to stand upon congratulated the 
country on the success of the reconstruction measures of Con- 
gress ; approved of equal suffrage to all loyal men in the South, 
and of the doctrine that it was a question properly belonging 
to the loyal States ; pledged the country to redeem its promises 
to pay; urged equalization and reduction of taxation; favored 
the reduction of interest on the national debt, and gradual 
payment of the same; asked for economy and improvement 
of credit; pledged the protection of naturalized citizens, honor 
to soldiers, sympathy for oppressed peoples, and commended 
those of the Southern soldiers who had turned in to assist the 
cause of good government. 

This brief of a very important platform shows the magnitude 
of the questions then pending. Those relating to reconstruc- 
tion were soon to be settled, not satisfactorily to all parties 
perhaps, yet so as to bring all the States back under the flag, 
and make them one again ; as they had been before. Those 
relating to finance, to credit, to interest, to debt, were to be the 
gravest in the near future, and to exercise the skill of our best 
statesmen for several administrations. 

Thus Grant was about to strike, in affairs of state, an exigency 
very like that he struck when he entered the Federal army. 
Order was to be brought out of confusion. Policies were 
chaotic, and new shapes were to be given them. The extrav- 
agance incident to war was to be further checked by economic 
rules. Most of all, some principle of reconstruction was to be 
adhered to with strong purpose, in order to keep the 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 455 

gradually closing sections of the Union from drifting apart 
again. 

Some of his most intimate friends urged him not to accept 
the nomination so complimentarily tendered. They gave as 
reasons his inexperience in civil affairs and the probability of 
embroilments that might tarnish his unsullied military fame 
and permanently affect his historical reputation. To these he 
said: "All you say is plain to me. I am aware of the diffi- 
culties awaiting any man who takes that position with its present 
complications. I have no ambition for the place. My profes- 
sion is suited to my tastes and habits. I have arrived at its 
height, and been honored with a position to continue for life, 
with a generous compensation, and satisfactory to the highest 
aspirations of a soldier. It will be the greatest sacrifice I ever 
made to give this up for the turmoil of the' presidential office. 
But if the people ask it, I must yield. For some years the 
people of America have trusted their sons and brothers and 
fathers to me; and every step taken with them, in the period 
from Belmont to Appomattox, has been tracked in the best 
blood of this country. If now they need me to finish the work, 
I must accept the duty, if in so doing I lay down the realiza- 
tion of my most ambitious hopes." 

That he had little knowledge of details in civil affairs was 
plain, but what a grasp of our institutions and the objects of 
legislation and statesmanship is evinced in a little speech de- 
livered at Des Moines, during a trip to the Northwest! 

" Let us labor for security of free thought, free speech, free 
press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal 
rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, 
color or religion. Encourage free schools. Resolve that not 
a dollar appropriated to them shall go for sectarian purposes. 
Resolve that neither State nor Nation shall support any insti- 
tution save those where every child may get common school 
education unmixed with any atheistic, pagan or sectarian teach- 



45 6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ing. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar. Keep 
Church and State forever separate." 

This was the civilization he believed in ; the civilization of 
learning, labor, equality of rights, and equal opportunity. The 
desire was uppermost to help speed the time "when the title 
of citizen carries with it all the protection and privileges to the 
humblest that it does to the most exalted." While such a man 
was spared to America, it would not be without a defender of 
that dignity, equality and liberty of man whose fundamental 
guaranty is the constitution and its amendments. 

The Democratic party, in its convention, in New York City, 
on July 4th, 1868, nominated as its candidates Horatio Sey- 
mour, of New York, for President, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., of 
Missouri, for Vice-President. Party feeling was warm, and 
party ranks were solidified. There were no side issues and no 
third candidates. The campaign was particularly active. The 
points most debated were the reconstruction measures of the 
Republican party, and equal suffrage in connection with general 
amnesty to those who had seceded and engaged in rebellion. 
The suffrage question was a comparatively new one, projected 
into prominence by the helpless condition of the freedmen, and 
the growing probability that they would not be able to main- 
tain their rights as citizens without the protection of the ballot. 
President Johnson had forced the amnesty question on the 
country by assuming to pardon all applicants, and remove all 
political disabilities, claiming the right to do so as an executive 
privilege. 

Grant's apothegm " Let us have peace " did much to tone the 
severities of a campaign which else would have been very bitter 
owing to the hostility of the Republicans toward Johnson, and 
the warm espousal of his cause by the Democrats. " Let us 
have peace " rang out everywhere, in hall, on the stump, in 
processions, and served to exalt a sentiment into a policy. 
From a transparency sign it became a tribute to the sagacity 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 45/ 

of its inventor; from a rallying cry it became a party tenet and a 
national wish. " Let us have peace " was like balm to hearts torn 
by bloody strife and tired of the existing political commotion. 

Grant was overwhelmingly elected, and his election brought 
about the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Con- 
stitution, which was passed February 25th, 1869, and by March 
30th, 1870, was ratified by three-fourths of the States. It con- 
ferred the right of suffrage on all citizens, without distinction of 
" race, color, or previous condition of servitude," and thus 
settled one of the questions that had been most earnestly dis- 
cussed during the previous campaign. 

When the electoral count was had, it showed two hundred 
and fourteen votes for Grant and Colfax, and eighty votes for 
Seymour and Blair. The table at the head of this chapter 
shows how the States voted, and how many votes they cast. 
The popular vote stood: Grant, 3,015,071 ; Seymour, 2,709,613. 

President Grant took the oath of office, March 4th, 1869, 
and was duly inaugurated amid one of the largest assemblages 
of citizens seen in Washington since the Grand Army review 
of 1865. In it were many of his old soldiers, who lustily 
cheered their victorious commander, and contributed to the 
enthusiasm of the occasion. His inaugural was a brief but 
able State paper. It was tersely written and abounded in 
wholesome suggestions for peace and sound advice to the Con- 
gress and country. He had nothing but kind words for those 
who, in the South, were resisting reconstruction, and urged on 
them the necessity of speedily and freely casting their fortunes 
in with those of the cemented States. He took high ground 
in favor of economy, public credit, and a course of public affairs 
calculated to repair the damages of war and start the country on 
a new career of peace, confidence and prosperity. Laws he could 
never choose to defy or regard as dead letters, but would regard 
them as things to be enforced, holding that the rigid enforce- 
ment of even a bad law was the surest way to work its repeal. 



458 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



The spirit of the message comported with the views of those 
who had elected him. Its grasp of subjects, vigor of thought, 
display of sterling good sense, and aptness of expression, 




GRANT ARRIVING AT THE WEST WING OF THE CAPITOL. 



showed that he had been a good student of our institutions, 
and a wonderful observer of passing political events. He 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 



459 



announced profound respect for the will of the people, and 
promised to shape his conduct and policies so as to meet their 
views, supply their wants, and protect their dearest interests. 
There was nothing disappointing about this first official paper 
of the soldier President, but everything to inspire confidence in 
his ability to rule as ably and wisely as he had commanded- 




PRESIDENT GRANT. 

He chose his cabinet as it stands at the head of this chapter, 
except, that it contained the name of A. T. Stewart, of New 
York, as Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate promptly 
confirmed his nominations, all but Stewart's. He was found 
to be an importer of foreign goods, and therefore ineligible. 
The name of George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was 



460 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

substituted. The Cabinet was regarded as conservative, which 
did not suit those who were yet full of the spirit of opposition 
to Johnson, and who feared the failure of a vigorous policy of 
reconstruction. But in this they were agreeably disappointed, 
for the President had no intention of defeating the popular will, 
and soon showed that he not only understood it, but intended 
to keep his promise to respect it. 

The situation was such as to require an extra session of the 
Forty-first Congress. This met on March 4th, 1 869, the day 
of his inauguration, and remained in session till April 10th. It 
contained a large Republican majority in both branches. The 
great question before it was the admission of Texas, Virginia 
and Mississippi, which States had not yet ratified the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution, nor otherwise complied with 
the measures of reconstruction thus far laid down. The extra 
session adjourned after strengthening the hands of the Presi- 
dent, and making his way clear by enacting that these States 
should be readmitted after they had submitted their constitu- 
tions as they then stood to a vote of the people, and had 
through their legislatures ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
amendments to the Federal Constitution. 

The troubles of the new President were now to begin. Un- 
like his predecessor, he had no policy of reconstruction outside 
of the laws of Congress, and these he would enforce, however 
obnoxious, till they were repealed. But in this wise determina- 
tion he was largely headed off by the condition of affairs which 
Johnson's policy had fostered, and for which it was responsible, 
in the Southern States. The opponents of reconstruction had 
there become coherent, had formed into parties, and had even 
got to rejoicing in the name of "Unreconstructed " and " Irre- 
concilables." The existing State governments were denounced 
as " Carpet Bag Governments," and their upholders as " Carpet- 
baggers." To oust these became an object. As this could 
not be done readily by legal means, a sentiment must be 



462 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

worked up against them, and resort was had to disorderly and 
terrorizing processes. Local peace did not exist. Appeals 
were constant for Federal interference and aid. The Presi- 
dent's lot became a most unhappy one. He found his efforts 
to keep the peace by means of such powers as he was endowed 
with an exceedingly difficult work. His authority was prac- 
tically ignored by secret concert among those who did not 
dare to openly defy it. His intervention was checked by suits 
and appeals to test his right to execute the laws of Congress, 
and finally, the constitutionality of the whole series of Recon- 
struction acts was questioned in the highest court in the land. 

To act with spirit and promptitude, and without mistake, 
amid this conflict of authority, and in the face of a defiance 
which was all the more vexatious because it was secret, was 
well nigh impossible. Yet he made few gross blunders. What 
he did make, he was quick to repair. He clung tenaciously to 
the great central idea that " a government that cannot give pro- 
tection to the life, property, and all guaranteed civil rights — in 
this country the greatest is an untrammeled ballot — to the 
citizen, is so far a failure, and every energy of the oppressed 
should be exerted, always within the law and by constitu- 
tional means, to regain lost privileges and protection." 

In the latter part of 1869, the Supreme Court came to his 
assistance with a decision to the effect that " Congress had the 
power to establish the relations of any rebellious State to the 
Union." This decision clarified the political atmosphere greatly. 
It sustained the policy of Congress and the Republican ma- 
jority, modified the tone of the Democratic minority, changed 
the avowed purpose to make reconstruction a further party 
feature, and simplified the duties of the President. 

In May, 1870, Congress passed the Enforcement Act, 
designed to give the President fuller power to protect the 
freedmen in their newly acquired rights, and to punish the 
perpetrators of those outrages which were usually committed 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 463 

in the night by masked bands, calling themselves Ku-Klux- 
Klan. This was followed by the Ku-Klux Act, in April, 
1 87 1, and by several amendatory enforcement acts, all designed 
to strengthen executive powers and meet new emergencies, 
but really tending to embarrassment. The judgment must 
have been superhuman that could prove unerring amid this 
confusion of powers, and variety of calls for their exercise. It 
stands to President Grant's credit, that his administration of 
these numerous, confused, and often conflicting laws was, in 
general, moderate and wise. 

During 1870, all the halting Southern States renewed their 
allegiance, having complied with the conditions of re-admis- 
sion. The last one, Georgia, after hanging back for a long 
time with her ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution, made July 15th, 1870, memorable by presenting 
the happy spectacle of a restored Union. Thus the general 
who received the surrender of the Confederate army and 
witnessed the downfall of the Confederacy, stood sponsor, as 
President, at the baptism of the new Union of States. This 
was the glorious consummation of his wishes, hopes, efforts, 
throughout a protracted struggle, in which hundreds of thou- 
sands of lives had been sacrificed and billions of dollars had 
been spent. To be presiding officer at such a moment was a 
matter of the greatest pride and satisfaction. He who had 
helped to sow stood by to gather the harvest. 

In his first inaugural, President Grant struck the keynote 
of that financial policy which was to run for several years and 
end in resumption of specie payments. The paragraph we quote 
led to the passage of the Public Credit Act, which was a com- 
mitment of the Government to measures of financial reform 
and redemption of all its promises to pay. He was elected on 
the basis of honest payment of the public debt, and faithful 
maintenance of the public credit. Thus the people had 
declared. 



464 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Said he : "A great debt has been contracted in securing to 
us and our posterity the Union. The payment of this, prin- 
cipal and interest, as well as the return to specie basis as soon 
as it can be accomplished without material detriment to the 
debtor class, or the country at large, must be provided for. 
To protect the national honor, every dollar of Government 
indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly 
stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repu- 
diator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in 
public place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit 
which ought to be the best in the world, and will ultimately 
enable us to replace the debt with bonds bearing less interest 
than we now pay." 

These brave and honest sentiments were echoed by the 
Congress in that " Public Credit Act," which was at once a 
declaration of financial principles on the part of the Govern- 
ment and a beginning of that splendid financial engineering 
which resulted in resumption of specie payments in 1879, anc * 
in the funding and refunding of our national debt till almost 
the entire unpaid balance was, by 1884, carried at a rate of 
interest running from three to four per cent. 

The act read, " That in order to remove any doubt as to the 
purpose of the government to discharge all its just obligations 
to the public creditors, and to settle conflicting questions of 
law by which such obligations have been contracted, it is hereby 
provided and declared that the faith of the United States is 
solemnly pledged to the payment in coin, or its equivalent, of 
all obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known 
as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obliga- 
tions of the United States, except in cases where the law has 
expressly provided that they shall be paid in lawful money, or 
in other currency than gold and silver ; but none of said inter- 
est bearing obligations not already due shall be redeemed or 
paid before maturity, unless at such time United States notes 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 465 

shall be convertible into coin at the option of the holder, or 
unless at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower 
rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at 
par in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its 
faith to make provision at a practicable period for the redemp- 
tion of the United States notes in coin." 

This may be termed the loyal creed of honesty. Grant's 
serious advice and his great personal popularity, made it a 
chart for future guidance. And to fully understand its import- 
ance at the time, it must be said that there was grave doubt of 
the constitutionality of the legal tender acts and great fear that 
the national credit would receive a damaging blow. The voice 
of repudiation was abroad. Opponents of the national cur- 
rency were closely and severely construing the power which 
the government assumed in time of war to raise money by 
issuing paper promises to pay. Should the sentiment against 
honest payment of the national pledges assume a drift and 
become a party shibboleth, as was then apparent, there was no 
telling the depth of disaster and disgrace into which the nation 
would be plunged. War would have been in vain and victory 
robbed of its dearest results. The triumph of the Confederate 
cause would have been as nothing compared with the national 
humiliation, should financial discredit now come upon it. 

How faithfully Grant's position reflected the law as well as 
public sentiment, appears from the fact that in March, 1870, 
the Supreme Court rendered its memorable decision affirming 
the constitutionality of the legal tender acts. This decision 
was generally pleasing to the Republicans, and to the credit 
classes. It was received, at first, very coldly by the Demo- 
cratic party. Notwithstanding opposition, it soon became 
popular, and in a little while furnished the stock in trade of 
that new party which sprung up called " The Greenback 
Party," and which, strange to say, was largely recruited from 
the Democratic ranks. 
30 



466 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

At the opening of the second session of the Forty-First 
Congress, December 5 th, 1870, President Grant occupied in his 
message the same high ground as before on all questions of 
national moment Reconstruction was then happily out of the 
way. The message introduced one new measure, that was the 
annexation of the island of St. Domingo to the United States. 




CHARLES SUMNER. 

A treaty of annexation had been negotiated between Presi- 
dent Grant and the President of the Republic of St. Domingo 
as early as September 4th, 1869. Senator Sumner opposed 
this treaty and the entire policy of annexation, more through 
pique at not having been consulted in its preparation, as chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, than on any broad 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 467 

grounds of statesmanship. His speech against it was a Phil- 
lipic against Grant. The President's reasons for acquisition 
were chiefly military ones. He suggested that a naval station 
in the Carribean Sea would facilitate home operations in the 
Gulf of Mexico, and in the event of war would prove a source 
of protection to our entire Southern borders. Though a 
special commission sent to San Domingo for the purpose 
reported that the people were in favor of annexation, the Sen- 
ate could not be brought to confirm the treaty and the whole 
matter was dropped there ; but discussion over it was carried 
on for a long time afterwards in the newspapers, much to the 
injury of President Grant, whose innocent and excellent reasons 
for acquisition were distorted into forgetfulness of our tradi- 
tions and personal desire to make foreign conquests. 

A matter of international moment and one in which Presi- 
dent Grant took great pride, was settlement of the Alabama 
claims controversy. These were claims made by the United 
States against Great Britain for damage done to American ves- 
sels and commerce during the Rebellion by the Alabama and 
other cruisers fitted out in English ports. The amount 
involved was large. Both nations were firm in their positions 
respecting them. Only the wisest counsels could prevent 
serious complications and perhaps war. The President's diplo- 
macy was happily shaped in the interest of peace. A treaty 
was formed and ratified at Washington, May 8th, 1871, by 
which both nations agreed to submit the dispute to a board of 
arbitrators chosen from among the leading nations of the 
world. Charles Francis Adams was selected from the United 
States ; Sir Alexander Cockburn from England ; Senator 
Count Sclopis, from Italy ; Jacob Stampfli, from Switzerland ; 
and Baron D'ltajuba, from Brazil. This board represented a 
new departure in international affairs. Hitherto war had been 
the only means of settling disputes of this nature and claims 
of this magnitude. Upon the success of this experiment 



468 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

depended a great question in the future — the possibility of 
averting wars between nations by previous arbitration of their 
difficulties. The result was a signal triumph of the plan. 
The arbitration proceeded harmoniously. The Board brought 
in a verdict of $15,500,000, called the "Geneva award," in favor 
of the United States, to which verdict England did not 
demur. 

What was known as the " Force Bill" of Feb. 28th, 1871, 
reopened some of the party animosities which reconstruction 
had allayed. It gave to those in the Southern States the right 
of suit in the federal courts where they were deprived of the 
privileges conferred by national statutes, and aimed a blow at 
unlawful combinations of men, by adjudging such combina- 
tions conspiracies to be put down by the national army or navy. 
It was a delicate law to administer. A captious, arbitrary or 
unjust President might have found in it a terrific weapon. But 
President Grant handled it, as he had done all the reconstruc- 
tion powers, in a way to avoid oppression and so as to insure 
justice without violence. 

On May 22d, 1872, President Grant had the pleasure of 
seeing the spirit of the terms on which he accepted the sur- 
render of the Confederates at Appomattox incorporated into a 
National Amnesty law, by whose provisions all political dis- 
abilities were removed from those who had participated in the 
Rebellion, except officers of the army and navy, and officials 
of the Confederate government. This was the beginning of 
that series of amnesty laws, which finally lifted disability 
from the shoulders of all Confederate officers and officials ex- 
cept President Jefferson Davis. 

In view of the importance which the matter has since 
assumed, and of the fact that it bids fair to be a momentous 
question among parties for some time, as well as in its direct 
bearings on government welfare, it must be mentioned that the 
reform spirit which sought a change in the tenure of public 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT — FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 469 

office and in the manner of making federal appointments found 
its first executive advocate in President Grant. 

On March 3d, 1871, the first civil service act in the history 
of the country was passed, under which a commission was 
promptly appointed to recommend a plan of procedure. It is 
unnecessary to say that it was in advance of public sentiment. 
Let the President's own words gathered from his messages, 
state his position on this new, but growthy question. 

"An earnest desire has been felt to correct abuses which have 
grown up in the civil service of the country through the defect- 
ive method of making appointments to office. Heretofore 
federal offices have been regarded too much as the reward of 
political services. Under authority of Congress, rules have 
been established to regulate the tenure of office and the mode 
of appointments. It cannot be expected that any system of 
rules can be entirely effective, and prove a perfect remedy for 
the existing evils, until they have been thoroughly tested by 
actual practice, and amended according to the requirements of 
the service. During my term of office it shall be my greatest 
endeavor to so apply the rules as to secure the greatest possible 
reform." 

And again, when touching on the question of "Official 
Honesty : " 

" It has been the aim of the administration to enforce honesty 
and efficiency in all public offices. Every public servant who 
has violated the trust placed in him has been proceeded against 
with all the rigor of the law. If bad men have secured places, 
it has been the fault of the system established by law and 
custom for making appointments, or the fault of those who 
recommend for government positions persons not sufficiently 
well known to them personally, or who gave letters indorsing 
the characters of office-seekers without a proper sense of the 
grave responsibility which such a course devolves upon them. 



470 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

A civil service reform which can correct this abuse is much de- 
sired. In mercantile pursuits, the business man who gives a 
letter of recommendation to a friend, to enable him to obtain 
credit from a stranger, is regarded as morally responsible for 
the integrity of his friend and his ability to meet his obliga- 
tions.' A reformatory law which would enforce this principle 
against all indorsers of persons for-public place would insure 
great caution in making recommendations. A salutary lesson 
has been taught the careless and the dishonest public servant 
in the great number of prosecutions and convictions of the last 
two years." 

And then, growing more positive as his own convictions 
ripened, and more urgent as public sentiment became stronger, 
he maps very nearly the legislation of the future, thus : 

" In three successive messages to Congress, I have called 
attention to the subject of ' civil service reform.' Action has 
been taken so far as to authorize the appointment of a board 
to devise rules governing methods of making appointments 
and promotions ; but there never has been any action making 
these rules binding, or even entitled to observance where per- 
sons desire the appointment of a friend, or the removal of an 
official who may be disagreeable to them. To have any rules 
effective, they must have the acquiescence of Congress as well 
as of the executive. I commend, therefore, the subject to your 
attention, and suggest that a special committee of Congress 
might confer with the Civil Service Board during the present 
session for the purpose of devising such rules as can be main- 
tained, and which will secure the services of honest and capable 
officials, and which will also protect them in a degree of inde- 
pendence while in office. Proper rules will protect Congress, 
as well as the executive, from much needless persecution, and 
will prove of great value to the public at large in the civil ser- 
vice of the government but it will require the direct action of 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 47 1 

Congress to render the enforcement of the system binding upon 
my successors, and I hope that the experience of the past year, 
together with appropriate legislation by Congress, may reach 
a satisfactory solution of this question, and secure to the public 
service, for all time, a practical method of obtaining faithful and 
efficient officers and employes." 

Says Commissioner Eaton, of the Civil Service Board, in his 
able work on " Civil Service Reform in England " : 

" It is a matter of general information, that under President 
Grant, a trial, beginning January ist, 1872, was made of the 
merit or Civil Service system in a limited way ; the regulations, 
competitions and examinations being closely analogous to 
those so long in practice in Great Britain. One hardly need 
recall the well-known facts that, by reason of the imperfect 
support given the reform, of open hostility in various official 
quarters, and of the damaging examples of official infidelity on 
the part of some of those connected with the Administration, 
the new system was placed at a great disadvantage ; but it is 
important not to forget that, despite all these drawbacks, its 
good effects clearly appeared, and that they are established by 
authority so high and direct as not to be open to question. 
From the report of the Civil Service Commission, submitted 
to President Grant in April, 1874, it appears that, upon the 
basis of their own experience, and of the reports of their sub- 
ordinates, the heads of departments, the members of the Cabinet, 
approved the language of the report, which stated the following 
as the results of the trial of the new system — that is, of the 
rules then in force : 

"(1) They have given persons of superior character and 
capacity to the Government, and have tended to exclude un- 
worthy characters. 

" (2) They have developed more energy in the discharge of 
duty, and more ambition to acquire information. 



472 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

" (3) They have diminished unreasonable solicitation for 
office. 

" (4) They have relieved the heads of bureaus of the neces- 
sity of devoting valuable time to hearing applicants for office. 

" (5) They have made it easier to dismiss those found un- 
worthy. 

" (6) They have diminished intrigue for removal for the pur- 
pose of bringing inferior persons into place. 

" There is no need, nor can the space be spared, to present 
here even an outline of the decisive evidence by which the 
utility of the new system was demonstrated in that report. It 
is enough to say that on the 18th of April, 1874, President 
Grant sent the report to Congress, with a special message in 
which he says: 

" ' Herewith I transmit the report of the Civil Service Com- 
mission. If sustained by Congress, I have no doubt the rules 
can, after experience gained, be so improved and enforced as 
to still more materially benefit the public service, and relieve 
the Executive, members of Congress, and the heads of depart- 
ments from influences prejudicial to good administration. The 
rules, as they have hitherto been enforced, have resulted bene- 
ficially, as is shown by the opinions of the members of the 
Cabinet and their subordinates in the Departments, and in that 
opinion I concur.' 

" The message concluded by asking for the same appropria 
tion for the next year that had been made for the previous 
year. President Grant repeated these views in his annual mes- 
sage of December 7th, 1874, in which he again appealed to 
Congress for an appropriation. But not even such unques- 
tioned evidence, reinforced by the request of the President, 
could avail in that Congress. Its members lacked faith in the 
higher sentiments of the people as much as they desired 
patronage in their own hands. Party managers clamored for 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 473 

spoils. There was a lamentable absence of foresight and states- 
manship. The pledges of the past and the promise of the 
future were sacrificed by a refusal to make the least appropria- 
tion, and by treating with contempt an experiment for which 
the party and administrative power were responsible." 

His position on the other leading questions of the time, as 
well as that policy which, in general, characterized his admin- 
istration, can best be gathered from his own lips. The 
extracts from his messages and speeches are necessarily brief, 
but they serve to show sentiment pretty fully, for he was a 
sententious and vigorous writer, and made himself understood 
by few and apt words. 

GRANT ON PUBLIC POLICY. 

If elected, " it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws 
in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giving peace, 
quiet and protection everywhere." 

His principle of action is embodied in the statement : 

" A purely administrative officer should always be left free 
to execute the will of the people. I always have respected 
that will, and always shall." — Letter accepting nomination. 

GRANT ON EXECUTIVE DUTY. 

" On leading questions agitating the public mind, I will 
always express my views to Congress, and urge them accord- 
ing to my judgment; and when I think it advisable, will exer- 
cise the constitutional privilege of interposing a veto to defeat 
measures which I oppose. But all laws will be faithfully exe- 
cuted, whether they meet my approval or not. 

" I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but 
none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to 



474 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

govern all alike — those opposed as well as those who favor 
them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or 
obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." 



ON PUBLIC CONTROVERSIES. 

" In meeting these, it is desirable they should be approached 
calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering 
that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to 
be obtained. 

" This requires security of person, property, and free religious 
and political opinion in every part of our common country, 
without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these 
ends will receive my best efforts for their enforcement." 

HIS FOREIGN POLICY. 

" I would deal with nations as equitable law requires indi- 
viduals to deal with each other." 

GRANT ON CITIZENSHIP. 

" I would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of native 
or foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized, or the 
flag of our country floats." 

HIS INDIAN POLICY. 

" I will favor any course toward them which tends to their 
civilization and ultimate citizenship." 

ON INDIVIDUAL DUTY. 

" I ask patient forbearance, one toward another, throughout 
the land, and a. determined effort on the part of every citizen 
to do his share toward cementing a happy union ; and I ask 
the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this 
consummation." 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 475 

ON PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

" The ' Father of his Country,' in his farewell address, uses 
the language, ' Promote, then, as a matter of primary import- 
ance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge ! ' The 
adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution com- 
pletes the greatest civil change, and constitutes the most im- 
portant event, that has ever occurred since the nation came into 
life. The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed 
that is given to the urgent recommendation of Washington. 
If these recommendations were important then, with a popula- 
tion of but a few millions, how much more important now ! 

" I therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within 
their constitutional powers to promote and encourage popular 
education throughout the country ; and upon the people every- 
where to see to it, that all who possess and exercise political 
rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge 
which will make their share in government a blessing, and not 
a danger. By such means only can the benefits contemplated 
by this amendment to the Constitution be secured." 

ON THE TEST OATH. 

" I believe that it is not wise policy to keep from office by 
an oath those who are not disqualified by the Constitution, and 
who are the choice of the legal voters ; but, while relieving 
them from an oath which they cannot take, I recommend the 
release also of those to whom the oath has no application." 

ON POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS. 

" The utmost fidelity and diligence will be expected of all 
officers in every branch of the public service. Political assess- 
ments, as they are called, have been forbidden within the vari- 
ous departments ; and, while the right of all persons in official 
positions to take part in politics is acknowledged, and the 



476 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

elective franchise is recognized as a high trust to be discharged 
by all entitled to its exercise, whether in the employment of 
the government or in private life, honesty and efficiency, not 
political activity, will determine the tenure of office." 

VIEWS ON CIVIL RIGHTS. 

" I sympathize most cordially in any effort to secure for all 
our people, of whatever race, nativity or color, the exercise 
of those rights to which every citizen should be entitled." 

ON THE SUCCESSION. 

" Past experience may guide me in avoiding mistakes, in- 
evitable with novices in all professions and in all occupations. 
When relieved from the responsibilities of my present trust by 
the election of a successor, whether it be at the end of this 
term or the next, I hope to leave him as executive a country 
at peace within its own borders, at peace with outside nations, 
with a credit at home and abroad, and without embarrassing 
questions to threaten its future prosperity." 

GRANT ON MOIETIES AND FLUCTUATION. 

" The present laws for collecting revenue pay collectors of 
customs small salaries, but provide for moieties (shares in all 
seizures), which, at principal ports of entry particularly, raise 
the compensation of those officials to a large sum. It has 
always seemed to me as if this system must, at times, work 
perniciously. It holds out an inducement to dishonest men, 
should such get possession of those offices, to be lax in their 
scrutiny of goods entered to enable them finally to make large 
seizures. Your attention is respectfully invited to this subject. 
Continued fluctuations in the value of gold, as compared with 
the national currency, has a most damaging effect upon the 
increase and development of the country in keeping up prices 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 477 

of all articles necessary in every-day life. It fosters a spirit of 
gambling, prejudicial alike to national morals and the national 
finances." 

While the country felt it had a prudent, safe and far-sighted 
President in Grant, and while he was trusted by all parties and 
sections, as few executives ever were, some of his near advisers, 
and even cabinet officers, became the subject of serious, if not 
bitter criticism, amid which he was, for the most part, an 
uncomplaining and unjust sufferer. 

The spendthrift and speculative period of war was not yet 
over. While he introduced many needed economic reforms 
into his immediate administration, he could not influence or 
check that wild spirit of venture which existed in the outside 
business world, though he always recognized its danger as his 
state papers show. To keep all his official surroundings free 
from this reckless spirit was impossible. It would in spite of 
him occasionally break over the barriers and invade his admin- 
istration. It touched some of his most trusted officers. This 
he could not believe, so he clung to them, shutting his ears 
against charges and detractions. This was a mistake, as the 
sequel proved, — the mistake of trusting not wisely, but too 
well. But the motive was always good. 

Coming into civil life unprepared, save by natural extraordi- 
nary judgment, purity of intention and firmness of resolve, 
his administration brought the country each year nearer to 
that consummation of reduced expenses, lessened public debt, 
unquestioned public credit, and peace at home and abroad, to 
which he stood pledged in assuming executive responsibilities. 
If those in whom he placed confidence were unfaithful, no one 
of his bitterest maligners has ever yet dared to impugn his in- 
dividual integrity or refuse to him the qualification Aristides 
said, "became an official" ; and that is, "to have clean hands." 
The Credit Mobilier affair, though unconnected with his 




478 



MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



GRANT AS PRESIDENT FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 479 

administration, yet occurring near its close, served to embitter 
criticism of Washington methods and raise a new cloud of 
sensational morsels and vague suspicions. The Act of the last 
session of Forty-second Congress raising the President's salary 
to $50,000, and the salary of Congressmen to $7500, was re- 
ceived by the country with such a storm of opposition that it 
was speedily repealed, except as to the President's salary. 

The family, or White House, management of the administra- 
tion was always plain and popular. President Grant himself 
had pleasing administrative ways. He was accessible, heard 
patiently and well, never made promises he did not intend to 
keep. His home was not at first a society centre, but grew to 
be a desirable place to visit. It was presided over with dignity 
by his excellent wife, who was of plain substantial tastes and 
endowed with rare good sense. His family consisted of four 
children, three boys and a girl, all passing through a happy 
and healthful childhood. And thus ended the first adminis- 
tration of the soldier President. All in all, it had been one of 
purity, progress and reform, yet not one without opposition, 
much of which had been given a personal turn and was not 
free from a narrow spirit of vindictiveness. 




48o 



k PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 




FROM WASHINGTON TO GRANT. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
grant's second administration. 

March 4th, 1873-March 3d, 1877. 
ULYSSES S. GRANT, 111., President. HENRY WILSON, Mass., Vice-President 

Congresses. Sessions. 

Forty-hH Congress, {■; J*— J- %3$S&tf& 

For, y -fo„r,h Congress {■; %£$Z°fc%£!ES3frg* 



States. 

Alabama, . . . 
Arkansas, . , 
California, . . 
Connecticut, . 
Delaware, . . 
Florida, . . . 



Georgia, 

Illinois, , 
Indiana, 
Iowa,. . 
Kansas, , 



Kentucky, . . 

Louisiana, . . 
Maine, . . . . 
Maryland, . . 
Massachusetts, 
Michigan, . . 
Minnesota, . . 
Mississippi, . . 



Missouri, 



Nebraska, . . . 
Nevada, . . 
New Hampshire 
New Jersey, . 
New York, . . 
North Carolina, 

Ohio, 

Oregon, .... 
Pennsylvania, . 
Rhode Island, . 
South Carolina, 
Tennessee, . . 
Texas, .... 
Vermont, . . . 
Virginia, . . . 
West Virginia, 
Wisconsin, . . 



Basis of 
131,425. Vote. 



ELECTORAL VOTE.* 

Republican. 
Ulysses S. Henry 

Grant, III. Wilson , Mass. 



I 


3 


3 


I 


3 


3 


3 


5 


5 


7 


9 


9 


33 


35 


35 


8 


10 


10 


20 


22 


22 


1 


3 


3 


27 


29 


29 


2 


4 


4 


5 
10 


7 
12 


7 


6 


8 




3 


5 


5 


9 


11 


11 


3 


5 


5 


8 


10 


10 



Democrat. 
Horace B. Gratz 

Greeley, N. Y. Brown, Mo. 

(Not counted.) 



6 for Brown. 

2 for Perkins, Dem., Ga. 

3 for Greeley (not counted), 



'8 for Hendricks, D., Ind. 
4 for Brown, Mo. 

(Not counted.) 

8 for Hendricks. 



8 for Brown. 

6 for Hendricks. 

1 for Davis. 



12 for Hendricks. 
8 for Hendricks. 



Totals, .... 292 



366 



* The death of Mr. Greeley before the electoral count caused the casting of h : s 66 votes as 
scattering. The above table indicates the way they went for President. For Vice-President 

482 



grant's second administration. 483 

THE CABINET. 

Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, N. Y. (continued). 

Secretary of Treasury, William A. Richardson, Mass. 

Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, Iowa (continued). 

Secretary of Navy, George M. Robeson, N. J. " 

Secretary of Interior, Columbus Delano, Ohio " 

Attorney-General, Geo. H. Williams, Oregon " 

Postmaster-General, J. A. J. Creswell, Md. " 



The Republican party and the country were so well satisfied 
with President Grant's first administration, that they stood 
ready to honor him a second time. This was grateful to him, 
for he had been the mark of such bitter opposition by his 
political enemies as to make him feel that he needed vindication 
at the hands of his friends. If he were nominated and elected 
a second time, the fact would assure him that defamation had 
done him no injury, and he could always point to such a 
triumph as a sufficient answer to every invention of malice. 

Political sentiment was somewhat mixed in 1872. There 
had risen inside the Republican party a strong faction which 
cared nothing for practical politics, and which was swayed by 
the thought that universal amnesty ought to be proclaimed in 
exchange for universal suffrage. An equally large faction 
swung off, as early as 1870, on the idea that the Reconstruction 
measures were harsh, unconstitutional, and failures in their 
application. This occurred in Missouri. B. Gratz Brown and 
Carl Schurz led the faction in a legislative fight and triumphed. 
They called themselves Liberal Republicans, and their opponents 
Radicals. This was to be the nucleus of a new party. All 
the dissatisfied Republican elements came to it under the lead 
of Greeley and Fenton in New York, Curtin in Pennsylvania, 
Trumbull in Illinois, and Charles Francis Adams in Massa- 
chusetts. The Democrats favored it, thinking it would disrupt 

the vote was still more scattered. Brown, Libera. Republican, Mo., received 47; Julian, Dem- 
ocrat, Ind., 5 ; Colquitt, Democrat, Ga., 5 ; Palmer, Democrat, 111., 3; Bramlette, Democrat, 
Ky., 3 ; Groesbeck, Democrat, O., 1 ; Macken, Democrat, Ky., 1 ; Banks, Liberal Republican, 
Mass , 1. The 14 votes of Arkansas and Louisiana were not counted, on account of frauds in 
the elections and duplicate counts by two opposing Returning Boards. The popular vote was : 
Grant, 3,597,070; 31 States. Greeley, 2,834,079 ; 6 States. O'Conor, 29,408 ; Black, 5,608. 



-V 



484 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



the Republicans, and many of their leaders actually joined it 
It issued a call for a National Convention at Cincinnati, on 
May ist, 1872, where Mr. Greeley was nominated for President, 
and B. Gratz Brown for Vice-President Its platform accepted 




HORACE GREELLY. 



all troubles growing out of the war as settled, and favored 
reforms of various kinds and in general. 

The regular Republican Convention met in Philadelphia, on 
June 5th, 1872. There was practically no opposition to the 
naming of President Grant for a second term, and his choice 



grant's second administration. 485 

was a unanimous one. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, was 
nominated for the Vice-Presidency. The platform vindicated 
the Republican policy of reconstruction, emancipation, suffrage, 
equal rights; asked for a humane Indian policy; a Pacific rail- 
road ; public lands for actual settlers ; protection to immigration ; 
sound and uniform national currency; economy; enforcement 
of the new amendments to the constitution ; gradual reduction 
of public debt; and wound up with hearty approval of Grant's 
first administration. 

The Democrats met in National Convention, in Baltimore, 
July 9th, 1872, and, by prearrangement, accepted the candidates 
and platform of the Liberal Republicans. A straight out 
Democratic Convention met at Louisville, and nominated 
Charles O'Conor, of New York, for President, and John Quincy 
Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President, on an old-fashioned 
platform. The Temperance party was also in the field with 
regular candidates and a platform. 

The campaign was peculiar in every respect. The Repub- 
licans were sanguine from the start. They felt that they had 
an invincible nominee, and that the country would approve 
their platform of sentiments. The Democrats were cold toward 
Mr. Greeley, who had been a life-long Republican, and who, 
in his alienation, was pursuing a chimera. The Liberal Re- 
publicans bore the "heat and burden" of the campaign, their 
money, eloquence and effort almost alone contributing to its 
life and energy. 

The November result was a bitter disappointment to the 
Liberal Republicans. They had neither won themselves, 
nor captured their Democratic allies. "Fusion had resulted 
in confusion" for them, was a witty after-election saying. 
The electoral count showed two hundred and eighty-six 
votes for Grant and Wilson. Mr. Greeley died in Novem- 
ber, and the sixty-six Democratic electors voted for other 
persons. 



486 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

In answer to the ungenerous charges that he had been am- 
bitious to succeed himself, President Grant said; 

" I never sought the office for a second, nor even for a first, 
nomination. To the first I was called from a life position — one 
created by Congress expressly for me for supposed services 
rendered to the Republic. The position vacated, I liked. It 
would have been most agreeable to me to have retained it until 
such time as Congress might have consented to my retirement, 
with the rank and a portion of the emoluments which I so 
much needed, to a home where the balance of my days might 
be spent in peace, and in the enjoyment of domestic quiet, 
relieved from the cares which have oppressed me so constantly 
now for fourteen years. But I was made to believe that the 
public good called me to make the sacrifice. 

" Without seeking the office for the second term, the nomi- 
nation was tendered to me by a unanimous vote of the delegates 
of all the States and Territories, selected by the Republicans 
of each to represent their whole number for the purpose of 
making their nomination. I cannot say that I was not pleased 
at this, and at the overwhelming endorsement which their action 
received at the election following. But it must be remembered 
that all the sacrifices, except that of comfort, had been made 
in accepting the first term. Then, too, such a fire of personal 
abuse and slander had been kept up for four years — notwith- 
standing the conscientious performance of my duties to the 
best of my understanding, though I admit, in the light of sub- 
sequent events, many times subject to fair criticism — that an 
indorsement from the people, who alone govern republics, was 
a gratification that it is only human to have appreciated and 
enjoyed.' ' 

He took the oath of office and was inaugurated on March 
4th, 1873, amid a civic display and enthusiasm which equalled 
in brilliancy and intensity that of his first entry to office. His 



GRANTS SECOND ADMINISTRATION. 



487 



inaugural was cautious and able. Like all his state papers it 
discovered a clear understanding of political situations and was 




LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THE SECOND INAUGURATION. 



particularly firm respecting those measures of finance which 
were then engaging the statesmen of all parties. As we have 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

shown in the chapter on his first administration, by quoting 
from this inaugural, he occupied even higher ground than before 
on the question of civil service reform. The insane cry of 
" Grantism," during the campaign, and the blind but malignant 
fury of those who had failed to trace a single partisan charge, 
or even ungracious suspicion, to his personal or official door, 
led him to allude feelingly to himself: 

" I acknowledge before this assembly, representing as it does 
every section of our country, the obligation I am under to my 
countrymen for the great honor they have conferred on me by 
returning me to the highest office within their gift, and the 
further obligation resting on me to render to them the best 
services within my power. 

" This I promise, looking forward with the greatest anxiety 
to the day when I shall be released from responsibilities that at 
times are almost overwhelming, and from which I have scarcely 
had a respite since the eventful firing on Fort Sumpter, in April 
1 86 1, to the present day. My services were then tendered and 
accepted under the first call for troops growing out of that 
event. I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely 
without influence or the acquaintance of persons of influence, 
but was resolved to perform my part in a struggle threatening 
the very existence of the nation — a conscientious duty — with- 
out asking promotion or command, and without a revengeful 
feeling toward any section or individual. 

" Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my 
candidacy for my present office in 1868, to the close of the last 
presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and 
slander scarcely ever equalled in political history, which to-day 
I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict, 
which I gratefully accept as my vindication." 

And this verdict had been a most emphatic one. Those who 
had contributed, directly and indirectly, to it were Democrats 
as well as Republicans, political enemies as well as friends. 



grant's second administration. 489 

The election taught the moral that malice reacts on itself, and 
vituperation is not valid argument. Prone as the American 
people are to suspect and criticise, they yet love fair play. 
Washington was not blackened by false charge or slanderous 
epithet. Jefferson lived down all the malicious falsehoods re- 
specting ambition and intrigue. Jackson defied his detractors 
and increased his popularity amid the cruel fires of misrepre- 
sentation and malediction. Lincoln passed the ordeal of per- 
sistent misconstruction and defamation and came out pure, 
respected and loved. Grant, who had never had a dishonest 
intent, who had never failed to acknowledge and correct a mistake, 
had already received such vindication as the people could give 
at a presidential election, and such as was most gratifying to 
him. Further vindication he could afford to postpone, till time 
had softened asperities and mellowed hostile memories, and 
charitable, fair and exact history came along to make its record 
of only sterling facts. 

The President's second cabinet was duly confirmed by the 
Senate. A comparison of it with the first cabinet will show 
almost an entire change, though it was nearly the same as that 
of the last part of his first administration. This is not to be 
wondered at, for in the chaos of after war times few leaders were 
agreed on definite and abiding policies, and it was difficult to 
keep about the executive centre an harmonious band of politi- 
cal advisers. This very fact was turned to Grant's discredit. 
It of course narrowed his choice of men, and gave a show of 
honoring personal favorites. The unity and harmony he sought 
among his near advisers — cabinet officials — and without which 
no President can expect to succeed, were gained at the expense 
of broad party interests and perhaps of broader civic interests. 
Not that his men were not able ; this no one doubted. But ' 
that they were too much of one cast of mind, too much favor- 
ites, too much pledged to single lines of thought and pro- 
cedure. In any crisis this would have been right and necessary. 



490 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

But, as has been said, sentiment was chaotic, loose. It could 
not bear the thought of grooves and limitations, was struggling 
against walled up policies. Grant's ways were those of a soldier. 
His advisers were lieutenants. His methods were disciplinary. 
Hence, without thought of his integrity or consideration of his 
purity of intention, that rapid and foolish cry of " Grantism," 
"Caesarism," and that equally foolish fear that he would do 
something to make his term of office perpetual. We laugh at 
these things now, and wonder, in the light of the present, how 
there could be such a misunderstanding of clear situations and 
such a distortion of lucid facts. 

Grant's second administration opened amid financial disaster. 
The speculative period after the war culminated in 1873, and 
there came a panic which wrecked business credit and shook 
faith in that of the government. It disordered public policies, 
disorganized parties, bred discontents, and carried along with 
them a flood of confusions. It made the legislation of the 
Congress which met December 1st, 1873, difficult. 

The popular idea ran in favor of inflation. It was thought 
that by increasing the national currency to the extent of 
$400,000,000, the country would be relieved of pressure and 
further disaster avoided. An act was passed authorizing an 
increase of the above amount, in the face of the fact that too 
much redundancy had already contributed to the speculative 
spirit which brought on the panic, and of the further fact that 
the dominant party had resolutely set its head in the direction 
of specie payments and a higher public credit. 

The Republican majority was still large in both branches — 
thirty-six in the Senate, and one hundred in the House. This 
majority was therefore largely responsible for the inflation act. 
Notwithstanding this fact, President Grant vetoed the bill, 
giving as a reason that it ran counter to the sounder sentiment 
which already tended toward resumption, that it was inflation 
without an exigency to warrant it, and that it would impair the 



grant's second administration. 491 

public credit by increasing its promises to pay. The bill could 
not be passed over the President's veto for want of the neces- 
sary two-thirds, though a powerful minority in both parties 
favored it. This idea of inflation, coupled with the decision of 
the Supreme Court that the legal tender acts of the government 
were valid, became the basis of that " Greenback " movement 
which soon assumed party proportions and figured so exten- 
sively in the State elections of 1874, and for some years after. 

In this veto Grant stood fast by the principle enunciated in 
his first inaugural. " Fluctuation in the paper value of the 
measure of all values (gold) is detrimental to the interests of 
trade. It makes the man of business an involuntary gambler ; 
for in all sales where future payment is to be made both 
parties speculate as to what will be the value of the currency 
to be paid and received. I earnestly recommend to you then 
such legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie pay- 
ments and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the value 
of currency." 

This firmness was unpopular in the midst of depression and 
panic, but it was wise, as all now agree. It helped to stay the 
inflation furore- and advance the safe, conservative business 
thought that the way to recover was not by plunging the coun- 
try deeper into debt, but by retrenchment on the part of individ- 
uals and the exercise of a more cautious energy. It hastened 
the " age of gold," which was then not far in the future. 

The President had the pleasure of signing during this term 
of office several tariff measures, notably that of 1874, which 
had been passed to remedy the too rapid reduction of duties 
on imports, begun in 1871-72. He was always in harmony 
with the protective idea, and believed that the building up of 
our industries and thus creating a home market for our sur- 
plus cereals was a wise policy as well as solemn duty. 

The administration found itself cramped in its Southern 
policy. It had for a long time been clear that the " Home 



492 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Rule " sentiment in the Southern States was, in the end, bound 
to extinguish the local governments which existed on the 
strength of support given by all the people without regard to 
nationality, color or previous condition. Organizations called 
the " White League " ramified the States, and " The White 
Man's Party " had become a rallying cry. So long as this fer- 
ment involved only State issues and did injustice to no one, 
interference would have been improper. But, unfortunately, it 
ended in a riotous and bloody controversy in Louisiana, where 
two State governments, one under Kellogg, the other under 
McEnery, rival governors, were contending for supremacy. 

Several of the Republican governments, as in Arkansas, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas had called upon the Presi- 
dent for military aid in maintaining their positions, but this 
was declined except in the presence of such outbreak as the 
proper State authorities could not suppress. The condition of 
all was turbulent, demanding- constant attention from the 
President, and presenting him a task mtfst difficult, and danger- 
ous. There came up to the Executive Nthe most conflicting 
stories from " Home Rulers " and freedmen^' Wrtite Leaguers " 
and " Carpet-baggers." It was impossible to form an accurate 
judgment of the situation, and grave fears arose of a war of 
races. Political sentiment in the North was greatly affected 
by the situation, and showed itself adverse to the Republicans 
in 1874, when a Democratic majority was returned to the 
Forty-Fourth Congress. 

Sheridan's report, January 10th, 1875, of the situation in 
Louisiana showed that a condition of war existed between the 
rival factions, which was beyond control of the State author- 
ities and called for federal intervention. On January 13th, 
President Grant sent a special message to Congress reviewing 
the contention between Kellogg and McEnery, the rival gov- 
ernors, who both claimed to be elected, and asking that some 
steps be taken to ascertain the merits of their respective claims 



grant's second administration. 493 

in the interest of peace. In the meantime the federal troops, 
under Sheridan, had been drawn into several ugly complica- 
tions with the soldiery, or rather mobs, of the factions, and 
had been forced to suppress riotous demonstrations, if not 
actual warfare. The Congress referred the whole controversy 
to a select committee, after deciding that the Kellogg govern- 
ment was the legal one. This committee investigated affairs 
fully and drew up the celebrated " Wheeler compromise," 
which became the basis of settlement among all the claimants 
for peace in the State. Thus, further bloodshed was averted, 
and the Executive relieved, for the time being, of the delicate 
task of interfering in the affairs of an inflammatory state and 
section. 

He was hardly relieved of this difficult and dangerous respon- 
sibility when administration circles were plunged into confusion 
by the trial of his Private Secretary, O. E. Babcock, for com- 
plicity with the " Whisky Ring," then undergoing investigation 
for corrupt and notorious practices in securing legislation 
favorable to its interests. He was acquitted, and resigned his 
position. This ring was formed in the West in 1875, or earlier. 
It had not only succeeded in influencing legislation relating to 
the internal revenue tax, but in cheating the government out 
of such tax. This form of corruption, after President Grant's 
order " Let no guilty man escape," was traced by the govern- 
ment detectives through all its ramifications, and resulted in 
some notable trials. It was tracked, as we have just seen, up 
to so close a friend as his Private Secretary, and the enemies of 
the administration sought, by all - means in their power, to con- 
nect it directly with the frauds. But even partisan rancor 
failed, in the end, to smutch the President's character and good 
name. 

This trouble had hardly passed till his Secretary of War, 
William W. Belknap, was charged with selling an Indian trad- 
ing establishment, which resulted in his impeachment. But he 



494 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

resigned before the time of trial, and the vote in the Senate was 
one of not guilty, more on the ground of a want of jurisdic- 
tion of his case than as a declaration on its merits. 

These events were very embarrassing to President Grant 
personally and officially. While they did not detract from the 
prevailing sentiment respecting his integrity, they showed that 
his confidence in men, and his faithfulness to trusted friends 
could be taken advantage of, to his detriment. He had been 
forewarned of the possibility that these two officials were im- 
plicated by rumors and hints of suspicion, but he could not 
strike them a blow in the face of detractive fires. He would 
rather tolerate them, and divide the consequences of their fall, 
when conviction came, than help to ruin them in advance by 
removing them, or asking for their resignations.- This was 
the President's spirit in military and civil affairs. It was right 
in principle, but often made him the victim of unmerited 
abuse. 

On January 14th, 1875, the President witnessed, in the pas- 
sage of the Resumption Act, the planting of a corner stone for 
that financial temple, whose erection he had advocated from 
the day of his first inauguration. Owing to the panic, the 
Greenback theorists, the unsettled state of public sentiment, 
immediate resumption was deemed impolitic. But to provide 
for it, in order to occasion a drift towards it at some future 
day, was the object of the act. It fixed a period four years 
afterwards (1879) as the time when all might hope to look on 
a paper promise to pay as equivalent to gold. 

Most extraordinary pressure was brought to bear on the 
President to induce him to withhold his signature from the 
bill. Many of his warmest personal friends were ardent infla- 
tionists. Eminent bankers, merchants, men with the care of 
great railroad enterprises, by petition, by personal appeal, by 
letter, by telegraph, warned him of ruin to the country by 
forcing resumption. 



grant's second administration. 495 

Prominent Republicans doubted the policy of naming a day 
when we should redeem. It was derided as a party dodge and 
visionary scheme. Not one moment did Grant waver. He 
felt that if the occasion slipped by, it might not come again. 
The bill was right. The vital interests of the country demanded 
that we should come back to financial sanity. The honor of 
the people could only be maintained by redeeming their out- 
standing pledges. By his act the bill became law, and because 
of that resumption is now an accomplished fact. It was among 
the last acts of special importance in his administration, and 
was the consummation of a recommendation made by him in 
his first state paper. It was the finality of the war currency ; 
and by this act the American people once more had a circula- 
tion convertible into specie, the honest, constitutional money 
of their fathers. We are to-day — because we had Grant for 
President — regarded by the world as an honest, promise-keep- 
ing nation. Our credit is second to that of no other power. 

In December, 1875, the administration was face to face with 
a Democratic House. The elections of 1874 had gone against 
it, owing to the combination of circumstances already pointed 
out. It is especially hard for a dominant party to stand up in 
the midst of financial depression. So it is impossible for an 
administration to go unscathed through panic. Both will be 
held responsible, however imaginarily and unfairly, for public 
ills. This is one of the penalties of supremacy in a Republic. 
In paying this penalty, supremacy learns its best lessons of 
wisdom, and much about the value and beauty of resignation. 
In inflicting the penalty, the party flushed with new triumph 
is in no teachable mood, and never learns its lessons till 
plunged into the fiery school of defeat. 

But this state of affairs was rest for the administration. It 
could advise action, shape policies. Both would be unheeded 
in a Democratic House. And then that House was on trial. 
It would precipitate nothing, do nothing. A Presidential 



496 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

campaign was coming on. There should be no commitments to 
anything rash. Quiescence was better than agitation. There 
could be no mistakes, if all sat still. Thus things drifted to- 
ward the doubtful contest of November, 1876, and the disputed 
result between Hayes and Tilden. With the merits of this 
dispute we have nothing to do. It formed no part of Grant's 
administration, except in so far as it may have been fortunate 
for the country that an old soldier, who had the confidence of 
the whole army, was in the Presidential chair at the time, and 
one who would have known how to act promptly, in case the 
warlike demonstrations threatened by some of the crack- 
brained partisans of the time had not turned out to be the 
veriest bluster. 

The succession of President Hayes, March 4th, 1877, relieved 
President Grant of Executive responsibility. It was a welcome 
relief, the end of a highly honorable and useful service, which 
had known no break since April, 1 86 1 , sixteen years before. And 
what a mark he had made in the nation and the world in that 
time. In war, and that without influence or solicitation, he arose 
from captain of a company to the honorary position of Lieu- 
tenant-General, which none had occupied, except Washington; 
in peace, from Secretary of War, ad interim, to President for 
two terms. And all the while firm in duty, trusted beyond 
ordinary men, abused but without taint, witnessing the objects 
achieved for which armies and parties strove; great in all 
trying places, never letting a cause go, accomplishing where 
others failed ; witnessing the surrender of armed rebellion, 
starting the country on a career of prosperous peace, present 
at the opening of its Centennial anniversary at Philadelphia, as 
chief representative of a nation preserved intact by his valor, 
unified by his wisdom, presided over by his firm, conciliatory 
and enlightened sway. 

His was the disposition and character necessary to moor the 
country safely, at a distance of twelve years, from the civil 



GRANTS SECOND ADMINISTRATION. 497 

war. At all times a man of destiny, none other, let him be 
what he might, could have held in such firm subjection the 
disturbing forces of the times, worked into such consummate 
order the mixed views and practices of the hour, created a 
larger degree of confidence in the government, realized so 
much out of the sacrifices of war. Our public debt steadily 
decreased during his eight years of sendee. Engagements 
with the public creditors at home and abroad were solemnly 
kept. The public burdens were lessened in every department. 
Economy became a rule and extravagance an exception. Not 
since the beginning had the national credit been so high. 

Should the question be put to the American people to-day, 
what one of their number had been most instrumental in up- 
holding the supremacy of the flag on which Emancipation was 
written, and which was more than ever the symbol of freedom, 
or who in the calm of peace had done most to write on that 
flag the word Honor after Liberty and Loyalty, the unanimous 
answer would be that the great dignity belonged to Grant. 

32 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 

FROM April, 1861, to March 4th, 1877, General Grant had 
been at the disposal of his country. Four of these years 
had been spent in active war, eight in the service of the State. 
He now needed rest, but to retire was not rest He would 
seek rest in recreation, turn cosmopolitan, go to the ends of 
the earth. Fame was his sesame to the nations, his badge of 
favor in countries, courts and cities. 

No living person could feel a keener pleasure in travel, few 
could observe so fully and accurately. He would not make a 
holiday run across the waters, but a world's journey, taking in 
principalities and powers under all suns, among all peoples. 
He went without thought of ovation or triumph, yet with the 
consciousness that a distinguished American citizen would be 
well received. He would type home character and institutions, 
and be a part of what they were. He would not represent his 
country officially, but show in the flesh what manner of man it 
had chosen to honor. 

Grant had often longed to go abroad to see, to hear, 
to learn, to judge. He was the greatest student of men, 
manners and institutions. This was his opportunity. He 
could gratify his tastes to the full. Never man traveled under 
such favorable auspices. 

He sailed, with his wife and son Jesse, from Philadelphia, on 

the steamship Indiana, of the American line, from the port of 

Philadelphia, on May 17th, 1877. That he carried the best 

wishes of the American people with him was clear from the 

498 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. ^qq 

character of the parting demonstrations. They were frequent, 
long and hearty. Those on the part of Philadelphians were 
particularly flattering. Five hundred persons on a special 
steamer saw him to the ocean vessel. A smaller steamer car- 
ried his wife and her special escort to the same destination. 
While sailing down the bay, as far as New Castle, the Grant 
guests partook of lunch. They embraced the most distin- 
guished citizens, representatives of the army, navy, national, 
state, and municipal administration, the industries, sciences 
and professions. 

The toast, " The honored guest of the day," was proposed 
by the Mayor of Philadelphia, and Grant was called on to 
respond. He said : " I had not expected to make a speech to- 
day, and therefore can do nothing more than thank you, as I 
have had occasion to do so often within the past week. I 
have been only eight days in Philadelphia, and have been 
received with such unexpected kindness that it finds me with 
no words to thank you. What with driving in the park, and 
dinners afterward, and keeping it up until after midnight, and 
now to find myself still receiving your kind hospitality, I am 
afraid you have not left me stomach enough to cross the 
Atlantic." 

Among those who responded to toasts and contributed to 
the eclat of the occasion were General Sherman, Hamilton 
Fish, Zach. Chandler, Geo. M. Robeson, Simon Cameron, Gen- 
eral Bailey, Governor Hartranft, the Mayor of Philadelphia, etc. 

When the ex-President's steamer approached New Castle, 
the point where the Indiana was waiting to take the ocean 
voyagers aboard, General Grant was called upon for a parting 
sentiment. He spoke solemnly, and as if much moved by the 
homage he had received : " My dear friends, I was not aware 
that we would have so much speech-making here, or that it 
would be necessary for me to say anything more to you ; but 
I feel that the compliments you have showered on me were not 



500 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

altogether deserved. They should not be paid to me, either as 
a soldier or civil officer. As a general, your praises do not all 
belong to me ; as the executive of the nation, they are not due 
to me. There is no man who can fill both or either of these 
places without the help of good men. I selected my lieuten- 
ants when in both of these positions, and they were men who 
I believe could have filled my place often better than I did. I 
never flattered myself that I was entitled to the places you 
gave me. My lieutenants could have acted perhaps better 
than I, had the opportunity presented itself. Sherman could 
have taken my place as a soldier, or in civil office ; and so 
could Sheridan and others that I could name. I am sure that 
if the country ever comes to this need again, there will be 
men for the work ; there will be men born for every emer- 
gency. Again I thank you, and again I bid you good-bye ; and 
once again I say that if I had fallen, Sherman and Sheridan, or 
some of my other lieutenants, would have succeeded." 

This speech is noteworthy as a key to the inner heart of 
Grant. He seldom chose his lieutenants wrongly, he never 
deserted them after choice. He was not greater in his own 
estimation than any subordinate. All might have been his 
equal or superior had fortune favored. There was no jealousy, 
no acrimony, in his army or civic associations. He was plain, 
ingenuous and true. He did not assume honors, but divided 
them with all beneath him. Burdens he frequently assumed 
which he might often in justice to himself have similarly 
divided. 

It is the key furthermore to all the sentiments he expressed 
abroad amid dignitaries, in courts, before crowned heads and 
purpled shoulders. If he was honored, it was not he, but his 
country. If called a hero, it was not he, but his lieutenants, 
his men. If favored, however much or often, it was not he, 
but the institutions he saved from wreck. He ever lost sight 
of Grant amid fete and honor and homage. He ever made his 






TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 501 

country the subject of honor and mention. Privilege was not 
his but his nation's. There was no ego, no narrowness, no 
selfishness in word or act while he circled the globe and saw 
the splendors and powers of organized humanity. 

In the midst of these hearty congratulations, and with the 
best wishes of a peaceful, united and happy people, he em- 
barked on his ocean vessel and sailed for foreign lands. The 
incidents of the voyage were those of an ordinary passenger 
who has dared the deep for the first time. A little more 
respect, a fuller mention of habit and conversation, a deference 
due to greatness, these mark the trip of ten days as ocean 
voyager. 

When Queenstown was reached a storm was raging. This 
did not prevent a deputation sailing out to meet him whose 
cheers and words of welcome were heard above the roar of 
billows. The General expressed regrets at his inability to 
land and receive the hospitalities of the city which were ten- 
dered him with true Irish heartiness, but promised to return 
to the green isle in a short time. 

The vessel ran on to Liverpool, and on May 28th the Gen- 
eral w r as received by the entire people with cheers and every 
demonstration of delight. The authorities of the city, aug- 
mented by deputations of officials from London and other 
interior places, received him in a tug and escorted him to the 
landing. The farewell cheers from the passengers on the 
Indiana were mingled with those on shore, and altogether the 
scene, under an unusually bright sunlight, and on waters that 
seemed calm for the purpose, was one calculated to inspire 
every participant. 

The Mayor of Liverpool received him in stately style and 
with a formal address. The hospitalities of the city were 
extended in honor to a great statesman and soldier. Grant's 
reply was characteristic. It was not he that was receiving 
honor, but the warm expression of feeling attested England's 



502 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

regard for the United States and for that citizenship of which 
he was an humble exponent. The Mayor was visited by 
the traveling party. The docks were viewed by steamer. 
They were formally received in the town hall. Fetes were 
held, with their concomitants of dress, equipage, toasts and 
speeches. Everything was done to make his visit pleasant 
and to show how sincerely the British people welcomed their 
illustrious guest. 

Meanwhile, England herself was responding. Cities were 
making ready for prospective visits. The press, with one 
accord, favorably reviewed his military and civic record and 
acknowledged that the most distinguished citizen of the age, 
and the world was in their midst. Respect was unstinted. 
One journal declared that he was " worthy of every possible 
attention. His name is so closely interwoven with recent 
events in the United States, that not only in America but 
throughout Europe, he is entitled to respectful treatment in a 
degree which it is the lot of but few to command." 

On May 30th, General Grant with a distinguished party of 
guests left Liverpool for Manchester, where they were received 
by the Mayor, Aldermen and citizens with the warmest ex- 
pressions of kindness. After visiting the factories of this busy 
place, and all the points of interest, a formal reception was 
extended in the town hall, at which the Mayor and other dig- 
nitaries made congratulatory addresses. General Grant ten- 
dered his acknowledgments thus : " It is scarcely possible for 
me to give utterance to feelings evoked by my reception from 
the moment of my arrival in Liverpool, where I have passed a 
couple of days, until the present. After the scenes I have 
witnessed in your streets, and the elements of greatness as 
manifested in your public and industrial buildings, I may say 
no person could be the recipient of the honors you have 
bestowed on me without the profoundest feeling. Such have 
been incited in me, and I find myself inadequate to their 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 503 

proper expression. It was my original purpose to hasten from 
Liverpool to London, and thence to visit various points of 
interest in this country. Among these I have regarded Man- 
chester as most important, on account of its manufactures, 
many of which find ultimate market in my own country. And 
I am aware that the sentiment of the great mass of the people 
of Manchester went out in sympathy to that country during 
the mighty struggle in which it fell to my lot to take an hum- 
ble part. The expressions of your people during that great 
trial incited in the breasts of my countrymen a feeling of 
friendship toward them distinct from that felt toward all Eng- 
land, and in that spirit I accept on the part of my country the 
compliments paid me as its representative, and thank you." 

A banquet was then spread and the reception was completed 
amid toasts and speeches, and the greatest cordiality and 
good cheer, after which the General was introduced to the 
assemblage and a scene of handshaking and personal welcome 
followed. The next day was spent in visiting the various 
manufacturing and industrial centres under the auspices of 
business committees, and then came formal leave-taking at 
London Road Station, amid a mass of humanity and deafen- 
ing cheers. Along the line of road the stations were deco- 
rated, and the towns turned out en masse to catch a view of 
the General, if possible, if not, of the train which bore him. 
Dinner was taken at Leicester, under the auspices of the 
Mayor. At Bedford the Mayor welcomed him, terming him 
the Hannibal of the American armies and praying that he 
might be spared to enjoy the honors and rewards which might 
be heaped on him. The response of Grant was brief but apt. 
Flowers were tendered. Mrs. Grant. At the terminus of the 
Midland Railway another enthusiastic welcome was in store 
for him and his party. Minister Pierrepont and Lord Vernon 
met them, and they, were driven in carriages to Mr. Pierre- 
pont's residence. 



504 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

After a day of rest, General Grant (June 2d,) visited the 
Prince of Wales and was invited to go to Epsom. The trip 
was taken with the Prince and a large party of notables, and 
he was greeted with a series of ovations. In the evening he 
was entertained at a grand banquet given by the Duke of Wel- 
lington at Apsley House. The banquet was served in the 
famous Waterloo Chamber, where the old Iron Duke loved to 
meet his war generals annually. It was a splendid and hearty 
reception attended by lords and ladies of highest rank. The 
General was asked his opinion of the races at Epsom. He 
replied : " There is an impression abroad that I am a great horse 
racer and fond of horses. I really know nothing of races, 
having "seen only two — one at Cincinnati, in 1865, another at 
Jerome Park in 1867. I am not therefore qualified to judge." 

On the next day, Sunday, the General attended services at 
Westminster Abbey to hear Dean Stanley preach. In the 
midst of his sermon he alluded to the distinguished visitor 
present thus : " In the midst of our congregation is one of the 
chiefest citizens of the United States, who has just laid down the 
sceptre of the American Commonwealth, and who by his mili- • 
tary power and generous treatment of his adversaries has 
restored unity to the country. We welcome him as a sign and 
pledge that the two great kindred nations are one in heart and 
are equally at home under the paternal roof. Both regard 
with reverential affection this ancient cradle of their common 
life." 

On the evening of June 5th, a grand reception was tendered 
by the American Minister, Edward Pierrepont, at his mansion. 
At least a thousand persons were present, representatives of 
the best English and American society in London. Among 
the former were Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, John Bright, Lord 
Houghton, Marquis of Lorne, the Lord Mayors, representa- 
tives of law, medicine, church, literature, the press and foreign 
nations. " Everybody was there," says a vivacious writer, "and 




PRINCE OF WALES 



506 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

saw in General Grant a first-class lion of the evening. He is 
attired in plain evening dress, conspicuous for its plainness 
among the stars, garters, and ribbons worn for the occasion. 
Every one remarks ' How well he looks ! ' ' He looks like a 
soldier,' said a viscountess at my side. So flowed the stream 
of conversation, while he who was the subject of it all stood 
with a bearing as composed as when in ' Old Virginny ' the 
drums beat to action and the boys went marching along." 

In speaking of this reception the General afterward said: 
" I am deeply indebted to the American Minister for this recep- 
tion, and the pains he has taken to make my stay pleasant, and 
the attention extended to our country. I appreciate the fact, 
and am proud of it, that the attentions I am receiving are more 
for our country than for me personally. I love to see our 
country honored and respected abroad, and am proud to believe 
that it is by most all nations, and by some even loved. It has 
always been my desire to see all jealousy between England 
and the United States abated and every sore healed. Together 
they are more powerful for the spread of commerce and civil- 
ization than all others combined, and can do more to remove 
causes of war by creating moral interests that would be so 
much endangered by war." 

On June 8th, General Grant was received by the Mayor and 
citizens of Bath. He dined with the Duke of Devonshire, 
where he met over fifty members of the House of Lords and 
Commons. He then went to a reception at the house of General 
Badeau, where he again met Gladstone and other dignitaries. 
The next day he lunched with Lord Granville and dined with 
the Marquis of Hertford. 

The freedom of the City of London was bestowed on him 
June 15th. This was no common honor, having been con- 
ferred on few before. This was followed by a reception given 
by the corporation of London. This had all the formalities of 
a Lord Mayor's day. Spectators were gathered by the tens of 




GLADSTONE. 



508 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

thousands. General Grant, in company with the American 
Minister and several friends, proceeded in a carriage to the 
Mayor's Hall, where he was received by aldermen, council- 
men and ladies, the band playing " Hail Columbia." The 
Mayor's speech of welcome was cordial and eloquent. It was 
responded to with feeling by the General, for the honors were 
unique, and extended with a heartiness, and amid a gorgeous- 
ness which greatly impressed him and his companions. A 
banquet was given at which one thousand guests sat down, 
composed of the best representatives of English official life. 
After a toast to " The Queen" came one " To General Grant," 
proposed by the Lord Mayor, whose speech was felicitous. 
He said : " As Chief Magistrate of the City of London, I offer 
you as hearty a welcome as the sincerity of language can convey. 
Your presence here as the late President of the L'nited States 
is specially pleasing to all classes of the community, and we feel 
that although this is your first visit to England, it is not a 
stranger we greet, but a tried and honored friend. Twice oc- 
cupying the exalted position of President of the United States, 
and therefore one of the foremost representatives of that country, 
we confer honor upon ourselves by honoring you." 

Here a gold casket containing the parchment conferring the 
freedom of the city was formally presented. The General's 
reply was emotional and brief. His thanks were profound for 
unexpected and unusual honors, and his words inadequate to 
express his feelings. After other toasts, speeches and formalities, 
the large, brilliant and enthusiastic assemblage, broke up with 
three rousing cheers for " General Grant and the L T nited States." 

A visit was then paid to the Crystal Palace where thirty 
thousand people received the "American General" with cheer 
after cheer. In the evening he visited the Queen's corridor of 
the Palace to witness the display of fire works in his honor. 
In this brilliant display he witnessed his own portrait and a 
picture of the Capitol at Washington. On the following day he 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 509 

dined with the Princess Louise. On June 1 8th, he had his 
first breakfast entertainment in England, given by Geo. M. 
Smalley, correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune. This was a 
spicy and homelike occasion, made brilliant by such a galaxy 
of poets, authors and correspondents as had never before been 
gathered in " Merry England." 

The Reform Club received him in the evening. This was 
a veiy select affair, attended only by notables with liberal ideas, 
scholarly, titled gentlemen, who represented the advance guard 
of British thought. Earl Granville proposed the health of the 
Queen, and Right Hon. Wm. E. Foster responded. He pro- 
posed, in order, the health of " the illustrious statesman and 
warrior, General Ulysses S. Grant," in a pithy speech, in which 
he said: " England and America, nay, civilization throughout 
the universe, recognize in General Grant one of those extra- 
ordinary instruments of Divine Providence bestowed in its 
beneficence to the human race." 

The General rose to reply, amid a storm of applause, and 
said: "I am overwhelmed with the kindness shown by Eng- 
lishmen to me and expressed to America. I regret that I am 
unable to express my thanks for the manifold fraternal courte- 
sies I have received. Words would fail, especially within the 
limitations of a public speech, to express my feelings in this 
regard. I hope when an opportunity is offered me of calmer 
and more deliberate moments to put on record my grateful 
recognition of the fraternal sentiments of the English people, 
and the desire of America to render an adequate response. 
Never have I lamented as now my poverty in phrases to give 
due expression to my affection for my mother country." The 
cheering was almost continuous during the delivery of the 
speech, and at its conclusion the speaker's health was drunk 
amid deafening applause. 

On the evening of the 19th, the General, Mrs. Grant and a 
number of other guests dined at Marlborough House with the 



510 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. t 

Prince of Wales, where he met the Emperor of Brazil. Forty 
sat down to table, and the Ex-President occupied the post of 
honor. At midnight the General visited and inspected the 
office of the London Tunes, and was wonderfully interested 
in the machinery of that extensive establishment. On the 
20th, he dined with Lord Ripon, and on the 21st with Minister 
Pierrepont, where he again met the Prince of Wales. On the 
22d, he was received by Mrs. Hicks, an American lady, and in 
the evening witnessed the opera of " Martha," at Covent Garden. 
As a compliment to the General and his wife, Mile. Albani sang 
" The Star Spangled Banner," the entire audience standing. 

On June 23d, The Trinity Corporation tendered him a ban- 
quet at Tower Hall, presided over by the Prince of Wales, and 
attended by Prince Leopold, Prince Christian of Schleswig- 
Holstein, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimer, Duke of Wellington, 
Earl Derby, and others. The Prince assured the General, in 
the name of all loyal subjects of the Queen, of his welcome to 
the country. The General thanked the distinguished hosts for 
their compliments. Other days were spent in visiting and re- 
ceiving honors, till the occasion of the Queen's reception. The 
invitation ran as follows : 

"The Lord Steward of her Majesty's household is com- 
manded by the Queen to invite Mr. and Mrs. Grant to dinner 
at Windsor Castle, on Wednesday, 27th inst, and to remain 
until the following day, the 28th of June, 1877." 

The invitation was accepted. The Queen, surrounded by 
her Court, received the General in the grand corridor leading 
to her apartments in the Quadrangle. Dinner was served in 
the Oak Room. The guests represented every branch of royalty 
and the highest places of power. It was the most notable 
and formal of the receptions tendered their distinguished guest 
by the English people, yet it lacked nothing of genuine 
heartiness. 




QUEEN VICTORIA. 



5" 



512 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

By the evening of the 28th, General Grant was back in 
Liverpool to attend, according to previous promise, a dinner 
from the Mayor and Corporation. This was a happy affair, in 
which toasts were frequent and speeches eloquent. On the 
29th, the General met the journalists of London at the Gros- 
venor Hotel, and partook of an enjoyable dinner, amid toasts 
and hearty words of welcome. On July 3d, he received a 
deputation of the representative workingmen of London, who 
presented their address handsomely engrossed on vellum. His 
reply was earnest and eloquent, and to the effect that no recep- 
tion had given him more pleasure. 

On the same evening, the officers of the English Arm}* and 
Navy received him at the Llnited Sen-ice Club. The dinner 
was presided over by the Duke of Cambridge. On July 4th, 
our national birthday, observances of a purely American type 
were held at the American Embassy, in which General Grant 
and a large number of his countrymen participated. It was 
a brilliant and almost strictly American affair, and the last of 
the agreeable and highly flattering receptions which had served 
to show the warmth of the English welcome, and had con- 
tributed so much to the pleasure of the General's visit. 

On July 5 th, General Grant and part}- left London for Ostend. 
Arriving there, they were tendered the use of the royal car to 
Brussels. Stopping, on the way, at Ghent, they took a brief 
run through the venerable city, and arrived in Brussels on the 
evening of the 6th of July, where his name was recorded in 
the Livre d'Or of the Hotel de Ville. On the 7th, King Leo- 
pold, of Belgium, called on the General, at his hotel, and had 
a long talk. This visit was returned, on the 8th, at the King's 
palace, where a rich banquet was given to a number of select 
guests. 

On July 9th, the General and party left Brussels for Cologne, 
carrying pleasing impressions of their Belgian visit. This 
journey was performed in the King's railway carriage. Here 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 5 I 3 

they were formally received by the civil and military authori- 
ties, and visited the wonderful Cathedral, the artistic bridges, 
and the many points of historic interest, even making the famous 
tour of the Rhine as far as Coblentz. 

On July nth, Wiesbaden was visited; and on the 12th, 
Frankfort, money centre of the continent, where a fete was held 
in his honor in the Palmer Garten. On the 13th, he went to 
Homburg, and drove thence to Salburgto view the old Roman 
camp there. In the evening there was a dinner at Homburg, 
followed by a grand illumination of the beautiful gardens of 
the Kursaal. That night he returned to Frankfort, and on 
July 15th, left for Heidelberg, whence the usual tour was made 
to Baden and the Black Forest. Then the party proceeded to 
Lucerne, Interlaken, Berne, and thence to Geneva, where it 
arrived on July 26th. At all points the people received the 
General with enthusiastic demonstrations. 

At Geneva he had the pleasure of laying the corner stone 
of the new American Episcopal Church, on July 27th. At a 
public dinner the same evening, the General, in reply to the 
speech of welcome, said : " I have never felt myself more 
happy than among this assembly of fellow republicans of 
America and Switzerland. I have long had a desire to visit 
the city where the Alabama Claims were settled by arbitration 
without the effusion of blood, and where the principle of inter- 
national arbitration was established,which I hope will be resorted 
to by other nations, and be the means of continuing peace to all 
mankind." 

Mt. Blanc, which was illuminated in his honor, was visited. 
The Simplon Pass was crossed and a tour made into north- 
ern Italy. By August 14th, the distinguished party were back 
to Ragatz and enjoying the baths there. Then a tour was 
made through Alsace-Lorraine, doubly interesting to Ameri- 
cans by what befell them as French Provinces during the 
Franco-German war. Here, Metz, Strasburg, Gravelotte, 
3 



5 14 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Sedan, and all the points of beauty and historic interest were 
visited, and a study made of that wonderful German invasion, 
in 1872, which robbed Napoleon III. of a throne and cost 
France her two prettiest provinces and billions of money. 

Returning from the continent Grant and his party made 
their promised visit to Scotland, arriving in Edinburgh August 
31st. He became the guest of the Lord Provost, and was 
presented with the freedom of the city. At the banquet in 
his honor he replied to the Lord Provost's speech as follows : 
" I am so filled with emotion that I hardly know how to thank 
you for the honor conferred on me, by making me a burgess of 
this ancient city of Edinburgh. I feel that it is a great compli- 
ment to me and my country. Had I eloquence, I might dwell 
somewhat on the history of the great men you have produced, 
or the numerous citizens of this great city and Scotland that 
have gone to America, and the record they have made. We 
are proud of Scotchmen as citizens of America. They make 
good citizens of our country, and they find it profitable to 
themselves. I again thank you for the honor you have con- 
ferred on me." 

The General visited all the places of interest in Edinburgh, 
including Walter Scott's birthplace, Holyrood Palace, house of 
John Knox, Arthur's Seat and the castle, where he was received 
by Col. MacKenzie, of the Ninety-eighth Highlanders. In the 
evening the General dined with the Lord Provost, where he 
met Major-General Stewart and other high officers in the 
British army. On Saturday, September 1st, he visited the 
Tay bridge, and the training ship Mars, where he was received 
with flying flags, music and cheers. He then steamed to Dun- 
dee and Tayport, and returned to Edinburgh on Monday, when 
he visited the famous Abbottsford and Melrose Abbeys. On 
Tuesday, Sept. 4th, he visited the Duke of Sunderland, at Dun- 
robin. On the 6th he attended the agricultural fair at Dornock, 
and on the 7th visited Thurso Castle, and Inverness, where 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 51$ 

the Provost received him with an address in which he stated 
that the Highlands had strong claims on the General who 
bore the name of a well-known and highly respected clan. At 
Granttown he was welcomed to the " home of the Grants." 
On September nth he visited Elgin and Wick, and was form- 
ally received by the authorities. 

On September 13th, Glasgow was visited, and the freedom 
of the city was presented in the Town Hall before an immense 
audience. The speeches on this occasion were full of allusions 
to America and Grant's great part in establishing universal 
freedom. His reply was among the best he delivered while 
abroad. On the 14th he visited Ayr, the home of Burns, and 
afterward Inverary, where he was the guest of the Duke of 
Argyle, for whom he had a great respect, and with whom he 
contracted a warm friendship. Returning to England, he 
visited the manufacturing districts of Newcastle, Sheffield, 
Sunderland, and Birmingham, with diversions to Leamington, 
Stratford on Avon and Warwick. Everywhere through these 
busy centres he was received with hearty welcome, and every- 
where he responded to the assembled multitudes in brief, apt 
and forcible speeches. He remembered this part of his jour- 
ney abroad with the greatest interest. It was striking evi- 
dence of the warmheartedness of the working classes, and 
showed that his name and fame rested on an admiration far 
more substantial than that of flitting court or hollow official 
life. Everywhere the towns were decorated in his honor and 
the citizens were out en masse and in holiday attire. 

From Leamington he ran to Southampton to visit his 
daughter, Mrs. Sartoris. Here he rested till October 10th, 
when he went to Birmingham, where he was received with the 
greatest warmth and happiest allusions to his American 
policy and efforts at international arbitration. On the 22d 
he visited Brighton, and on the 23d of October, returned to 
London. 



5 16 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

On October 27th, 1877, the General, wife and son left Char- 
ing Cross Station for Paris. A great crowd was gathered to 
see the illustrious visitors off. At Folkstone where the 
steamer was taken to cross the channel, an official reception 
awaited them. Then they bade good-bye to " Merrie Eng- 
land " and landed at Boulogne, where they were welcomed in 
the name of " The Marshal of France." Cars were taken for 
Paris, where the General was welcomed by the American 
Minister, Consul General, and an Aide-de-Camp of Marshal 
McMahon. Here he stopped at the Hotel Bristol. 

It would be impossible to give a detailed account of the 
many honorary receptions tendered to General Grant while in 
Paris. His stay throughout was a pleasant and profitable one. 
But while he visited every place of historic and political inter- 
est — the Quartier Latin, the heights of Montmartre, the 
Champs Elysees, L'Arc de l'Etoile, the obelisk of Luxor, the 
Tuilleries, the Place de la Concorde, the Louvre, the Notre 
Dame de Paris, the Bastile, the Palais Royal, the Galleries, the 
Column Vendome — the streets themselves were his main 
attractions, as being full of freedom and life. He was regally 
entertained by the American Minister, General Noyes; by 
Healey, the artist, and other functionaries and civilians. The 
American colony in Paris made him their guest, and added 
much to his comfort, by introducing him to French ways 
under the familiar garb of American speech. In the midst of 
this colony he lived a month, and early in December departed 
for the south of France, to Villafranche, where the i\.merican 
government had placed at his disposal the man-of-war Van- 
dalia. On December 13th, the General, his wife, his son Jesse 
R., and a party of friendly tourists, embarked on the Vandalia 
and steamed toward Italy. 

On December 17th, the Vandalia anchored in the beautiful 
Bay of Naples. The General and his wife landed and made a 
tour of the city of Naples. On Tuesday the 18th, Vesuvius 




MARSHAL McMAHON. 



517 



5 18 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

was visited. There was first a long drive amid beggary and 
importunacy. Then came the gibbering guides, each intent 
on a bargain, then the long ascent. To look into the crater 
was the ambition of the entire party, and to stand where Pliny 
had lost his life, where Decius had fought and Spartacus had 
encamped. The laborious ascent is slowly made, up, up, amid 
fantastic lava streams and horrid shapes, but all the time gain- 
ing a more glorious view of the city, the bay, the sea. Sight 
of the seething crater repaid the journey a thousand fold. 
There was chaos, wild, unformed and active as before the fiat 
went forth, " Let there be light." The descent was scarcely 
accomplished before nightfall. Naples, Capri, Ischia, Mise- 
num, Sorrento, the magnificent expanses of bay and sea, were 
as indelible memories, genuine coins of venture. 

Pompeii was visited on the 19th. There the excavations 
were going on, and the city which had lain buried since A. D. 
79, was giving up its secrets — its secrets of riches, fashion and 
death. Of these the General was a curious observer and in- 
terested student. He visited all the excavated parts — the am- 
phitheatre, the forum, the temples of Jupiter and Venus, the 
Exchange, the tombs, the modern museum which holds all the 
curiosities that are not spirited away to other countries. The 
Italian authorities directed that a house should be excavated 
in honor of the General's visit, and in his presence. Chairs 
were brought and a group was formed to witness the unearth- 
ing of grain, bread, cloth, paper, and various household uten- 
sils that had been in use seventeen centuries ago. The find 
was not large, but the operation was sufficient to show what 
treasures of history and art lay beneath the Vesuvian ashes. 

On December 23d, the General and his party arrived in 
Palermo. The officials of the Vandalia dedicated their Christ- 
mas festival to Mrs. Grant, and a royal time was had, with the 
good lady as queen of the feast, and proposer of the toast 
" Loved ones at home," which was drunk with a silent prayer 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 5 I9 

and devout amen. In the evening the ships in the harbor 
blazed with fireworks and cheers went up in honor of Grant, 
the illustrious American visitor. The next day was given to 
official visits, to recognition of a few of the many invitations 
received the day before, and to sight seeing. The Chateau La 
Favorita was visited, the Madonna, and all the sad beauties of 
a decadence which is eloquent of a glorious past. 

Sail was set for Messina, which was passed, and then Reggio, 
the Rhegium of the New Testament. Then Etna, wrapped in 
snow, remained in sight for a whole day. On the 28th, Malta 
was reached, amid such a gale as must have welcomed Paul. 
Here the Duke of Edinburgh came from the " Sultan," an Eng- 
lish iron clad, to pay his respects to the General. He was 
afterward received by the Duke at the palace of San Antonio, 
and by the Governor-General of Malta at a state dinner. 
In the evening the opera was visited, where " The Star 
Spangled Banner," was sung in honor of the illustrious visitors. 
Though the hospitalities were lavish, the stay of the party was 
necessarily brief. They sailed away, listening to "Auld Lang 
Syne" played by the band on board the " Sultan." Alexandria 
is their destination. Egypt welcomes the party with the 
American national airs and the thunder of cannon. 

It is January 5th, 1878, when the vessel casts anchor off the 
fortresses which, in 1883, were so quickly silenced by British 
iron clads. There was a right royal reception on board, given by 
visiting admirals, generals, pachas, beys, missionaries, etc. The 
General was welcomed to Egypt in the name of the Khedive, 
and a special steamer up the Nile was placed at his disposal, 
with the privileges of the palace at Cairo. The reception cere- 
monies at Alexandria were formal and elaborate, and thoroughly 
enjoyed by the respective participants. The General did the 
bewildering town on foot and quite lost himself amid its mazes. 

On the 8th, they bade good-bye to the " Vandalia " for a time, 
and took a train for Cairo, where they arrived after a ride of 



520 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

four hours. The Khedive extended a welcome through Gene- 
ral Stone, an old graduate of West Point, and a former friend 
and academy mate. The hospitalities of the place were again 
extended and accepted. The next day the visitors made a 
formal call on the Khedive, and were received in state. The 
call was then extended to the Khedive's two sons. These for- 
malities over, the welcome was made perfect by various recep- 
tions and public dinners, till the time for making further tour 
of the Nile by boat came. A steam vessel is at hand, placed 
there by the Khedive's orders. The party embark and proceed 
to indulge their visions of the old, the scriptural, the oriental 
civilization. 

The boat is called " The Li^ht of Two Rivers.'' It is Ions:, 
narrow and rickety. One would think a stauncher boat better 
fitted for that difficult navigation. At night it is run ashore 
and tied to a stake driven in the bank. At every stopping 
place, Bedouins cluster, seemingly coming out of the ground 
to form a fireside group. Progress is slow. Scenery monoto- 
nous. It would be dull, but for the pleasantries aboard and 
the glorious sunrises and sunsets. 

On January 19th, Siout, or Assiout, is reached, and visited. 
All the town seems to know of the coming of the Americans, 
for it is alive to such an extent that transit is difficult. Only by 
dint of extreme persistency could the visiting party, mounted on 
donkeys, make headway through the throng of fakirs, beggars 
and sightseers. Leaving this town of adobe, or mud, hovels, 
the tombs beyond were visited, and a first glimpse was had of 
the sepulture of the olden times, where the mummied dead 
rest in their rock enclosures, and where the vandalism of 
modern times has erased sacred mottoes and torn sepulchral 
enclosures. In the evening an entertainment was given by the 
Consul, and General Grant was welcomed by the simple- 
minded Moslem as " The King of America." This did not 
matter, however, as the official placards corrected the error by 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 521 

Welcome to General Grant." The entertain- 
ment was orientally novel, but sumptuous and sincere. All 
were surprised when the son of the host addressed the guests 
in fair English, concluding thus : 

" The only two great wars upon which she (America) has 
engaged were entered upon for pure and just purposes — the 
first for releasing herself from the English yoke and erecting 
her independence, the other for stopping slavery and strength- 
ening the union of States. And well we know that it was 
mainly, under God, due to the talent, courage and wisdom of 
his excellency General Grant that the latter of the two enter- 
prises was brought to a successful issue." In response the 
General thanked all for their kindness, and the young orator 
especially for his speech. Nothing in all their travels had so 
much impressed the party as the heartiness of their reception 
in the heart of Egypt. 

By January 21st, Girgel was reached, where donkeys were 
taken for Abydos, whose splendid ruins are regarded as the 
cradle of the civilization of the world. They date back to 
Menes, the first of the Egyptian kings, who reigned B.C. 4500, 
and the record of the inscriptions is complete from Menes to 
Sethi I., B.C. 1400. It was a dead city before the star of Thebes 
arose. Here was buried the god Osiris. All had to be put 
under guard while visiting these ruins', for the work of exca- 
vation is going on under the strictest surveillance. Luncheon 
was had in the temple sacred to Osiris, amid toasts and great 
good cheer, yet amid tombs, sacred inscriptions, ancient monu- 
ments and a dead world. 

Next Keneh was visited, with its curious bazaars and won- 
derful potteries, where all else is as primitive as in Bible times, 
and where men and women are of perfect type and apparently 
as cheerful as under the best institutions. 

Then to Thebes, " City of the Hundred Gates," whose 
greatest temple was Memnon, whose greatest ruler Rameses, 



522 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

now only fields and sand hills and hovels. Near it is Luxor, 
inhabited, alive. Here the party is received. They view the 
ruins with curious eye and and many thoughts of a past full of 
wealth, enterprise and art. Forty minutes from Luxor is 
Karnak, another wonder of the world, whose temple was built 
B. c. 3000. It is a part of Thebes, and the most magnificent 
of Egyptian ruined temples, whose inscriptions read like en- 
chantment, whose proportions suggest the work of gods. 

Thence to Assouan, the frontier station of old Egypt and 
the turning point of the Nile journey. It is the great Egyptian 
quarry whence the mighty stones for obelisk and temple and 
tomb came, and the point where all the trade between lower 
Egpyt and Ethiopia changed hands in the olden time. Then a 
jaunt is taken to Philae, renowned for temple ruins and beautiful 
amid trees, also a source of the great monumental stones 
which Egyptian kings erected to commemorate their wealth, 
power, wisdom and folly. On February 3d, Memphis was 
reached, in sight of Cairo. Its serapeum, tombs, and other 
ruins were visited with feelings of awe and wonder. 

Now the journey of a thousand miles on the Nile, in the 
land of the sun, amid desert waste and historic ruin, among a 
people as quaint as those of Pharaoh's time, was done. A 
few days are spent in Cairo for rest. By February 9th, the 
party is at Port Said where the good ship "Vandalia" meets 
them. They embark, and are once more under the American 
flag, though far from home. 

The ship sailed to Jaffa, where Solomon gathered his cedars 
from Lebanon and Simon Peter took ship to carry the gospel 
to foreign lands, now a town of no commercial importance and 
filled with greasy howling Arabs. They were on the sacred 
shores of Palestine, and amid scenes endeared to every Chris- 
tian heart. Dirty and spiritless as the town was, there was a 
show of welcome to the illustrious American. It is forty miles 
to Jerusalem, and thither the party proceeded by wagon, mule 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 523 

back, and other clumsy conveyance, and under the escort of 
the conventional eastern dragomen. A stop is made at Ramleh, 
home of Joseph of Arimathea. The plains of Sharon give 
way to the rougher country of Joshua and Sampson. Gezer 
is passed, and Kirjath Jearim, where the ark rested for twenty 
years, and Joshua's Valley of Ajalon, and then the last ravine 
this side of Jerusalem where David and Goliath engaged in 
deadly duel. A large delegation came thither to welcome the 
party to Jerusalem. It was headed by the American Consul, 
Mr. Wilson, who claimed to be the first editor in America to 
nominate General Grant for the Presidency. And now the 
concourse, a medley of all nationalities, speaking every lan- 
guage, dressed in all costumes, mounted in every style, repre- 
sentative of nothing save the central desire to make the guests 
and themselves happy, passed back into the city of David 
through highways lined with curious people, under the arch- 
ways of Tancred's gate, by the walls of David's tower, up to a 
small hotel surrounded by bazaars and markets, which is to be 
headquarters. 

The Pacha, the various consuls, the bishops and patriarchs, 
called on the General, and gave State dinners in his honor. 
The ceremonies were profuse and well nigh endless. All 
points of interest, Calvary, Ecce Homo Church, The Holy 
Sepulchre, Valley of Jehoshaphat, Kedron, Gethsemane were 
visited, and afterwards Bethlehem. Then from the high peaks 
of the surroundings a view was taken of the rough, picturesque 
country which lowers toward the Dead Sea, beyond which is 
Pisgah, and north of which is the Lake of Galilee. 

Back to Jaffa, ship is taken for Smyrna, which is reached on 
February 21st. Thence to Ephesus, where St. Paul preached, 
and then up the Dardanelles to Constantinople, where a royal 
welcome is extended. General Grant paid a formal visit to the 
Sultan, who received him most cordially, and ordered the 
Master of Ceremonies to present the General with an Arabian 



524 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

horse from the Imperial stables. The horse was not sent in 
time and the General sailed without it. The matter was 
revived, and the horse, together with another of equal value, 
was sent to the American Legation. They were shipped to 
the United States on board the merchant steamer " Norman 
Monarch," reached this country in safety, and were exhibited 
at the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Fair, in Philadelphia, in 
September, 1879. 

By this time it is March 5th, 1 878. The sights, receptions, and 
ceremonial engagements keep the party at Stamboul for a 
brief while, when sail is set for Athens, where the General 
meets with a flattering reception, at the hands of the United 
States Minister, General J. M. Read, and numerous participants, 
among whom are the King and Queen. The Parthenon was 
illuminated in honor of the American General, an event of 
rare occurrence. All the scenes of this historic city were 
studied, and the visit was extended to Marathon and other 
decisive battle-fields. 

Then the journey turned toward Rome, the Imperial City. 
Here special courtesies were extended by King Humbert, by 
Cardinal McCloskey, then present, by Pope Leo XIII., as well 
as by other dignitaries, native and foreign. The visiting took 
in the Coliseum, St. Peter's, the arches of Titus and Constan- 
tine, the Lateran, the museums, the Vatican, and all places of 
historic moment. The visit terminated on April 15th, by a 
magnificent state dinner given by King Humbert in honor of 
the ex-President of the United States, at which the entire 
Italian ministry were present. 

Fair Florence was reached on April 20th, where the Gen- 
eral went through the ordeal of frequent honorary entertain- 
ments, finding time meanwhile to visit the superb galleries, 
treasures of ancient and modern art, to drive over the mag- 
nificent ways which encircle this city of beauty, and even to 
make an excursion to Pisa, famed for its leaning tower. A 



526 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

great party of citizens gathered at the depot to wish the Gen- 
eral and his companions a safe journey to Venice. 

The reception at Venice, participated in by natives and for- 
eigners alike, was hearty and demonstrative. This city of 
canals was wonderfully full of interest to the travelers, as it is 
to all lovers of the new and beautiful, the quaint and historic. 
St. Mark, the Rialto, the Bridge of Sighs, the arsenal, the vari- 
ous churches, the monuments, the art galleries, the gondolas, 
kept the party interested for nearly a week. 

On April 27th, Milan was visited, where the General was 
received by a deputation of Italian officers and notables, many 
of whom had been in service with him during the sad days of 
our own Civil War. Here the Duorno, and St. Peter's, the tem- 
ple of music, and the hundred places of beauty in art and 
interest in history, kept them for several days. 

On the 7th of May, the General arrived in Paris again, so 
as to attend the opening ceremonies of the International Exhi- 
bition. This second visit was a continual round of honorary 
receptions, participated in by dignitaries and crowned heads 
from nearly every principality in Europe. Leave-taking was 
an escape from ceaseless fete and grand occasion, espec- 
ially as the destination was old fashioned, sedate Holland, 
that wonderful living place which is said to be a compromise 
between the land and sea, the country of canaux — cayiards — - 
canals and ducks. They are now in the flats, the Netherlands, 
where the sea is kept out by banks, and where the busiest, 
most careful, cleanliest, most economical and patient peo- 
ple on the face of the earth find an existence. An imposing 
reception meets them at the Hague, the court Capitol, which 
is followed by a grand military review. Prince Frederick, 
the king's uncle, gives a royal entertainment at the " House in 
the Woods," where has been collected the finest display of 
Japanese curiosities in the world. And then there are public 
demonstrations without number among these undemonstra- 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 527 

tive people, and sight seeings among their museums, and 
libraries, and grand old collections, and quaint architecture and 
peculiar industries and manners. Scheveningen, the Coney 
Island of the Hague is not missed. Then the party pass 
to Rotterdam, more a city of commerce and as much a city 
of canals as Venice — a city whose burgomaster sat out 
a rich entertainment for the American guests, and gave them 
a hearty leave taking. 'Tis but a short run to Amsterdam, 
commercial centre of Holland, city of houses with ancient 
gables, quaint roofs and queer windows ; city too of canals, 
museums, libraries, thrift, wealth, and rare history. The 
merchants give a dinner in honor of the ex-President ; the 
canal directors do the same. The Dutchmen take to Grant, 
with a fondness that show their liking for sturdy traits and 
a heroic mould. Little runs are taken to Brock, village of 
cleanliness, and to Haarlem, noted for its grand organ. 

Thence the route is to Berlin, with a stop at Hanover, home 
of the sovereigns of England. Berlin is reached on June 26th, 
but the party are met some sixty miles out by a deputation 
headed by the American Minister, Bayard Taylor, who give 
them a hearty welcome. In no city in Europe did General 
Grant enjoy himself so much. He explored every part on 
foot, and seemed never to tire of evening strolls in the famous 
avenue Unter den Linden. There was that about the city, the 
government, the men with whom he came in contact, the 
history of the country, its aims and destiny, which seemed to 
stimulate his curiosity and stir inquiry. He was interested in 
every place, but here he was both a sight seer and student. 
Perhaps it was because Prussia is all military, and Bismarck, 
Von Moltke and a host of disciplinarians were still on the 
scene, to be seen and talked with. Things are not wonderful 
in Berlin, except as they are great and perfect. The School 
of Staff is the largest in Europe, so is the University, the 
Royal Palace, the Zoological Garden, the Royal Opera House, 



528 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



the Palace Gardens, the markets, the parks, the reviews, the 
armies, the entertainments. Among the army officers Grant felt 




VON MOLTKE. 



himself quite at home. Many of them had served under him. 
Nowhere else had his campaigns and generalship been made 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 



529 



such a severe study. Nowhere else had they been so fully 
vindicated by the rules laid down for martial tactics. His 
military capacity and sound judgment had excited the admira- 
tion of the German veterans long before his arrival. 




INTERVIEW WITH BISMARCK. 



A diversion is made to Potsdam and the famous Sans Souci. 
Then followed at Berlin a series of honorary and official recep- 
tions, the first of which was given by Bismarck, who made it the 
beginning of a series of personal interviews and studies, alike 
34 



53Q 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



interesting and profitable to both guest and host. The Peace 
Congress of Europe was in session in Berlin. Bismarck had to 
attend its sessions. He gave this as a reason for not being 




EMPEROR WILLIAM. 



able to show the General more formal courtesy. The Emperor 
William was too ill to receive. Shortly before, an attempt had 
been made to assassinate him, and the effects of the shock had 




THE CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY. 



532 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

not yet passed away. His physicians had not yet suspended 
their orders to the effect that the old Emperor should avoid all 
public duties and displays for a time. But the Crown Prince 
greatly honored the visitors by ordering a grand military 
review for their benefit, and he seemed wonderfully pleased to 
hear from Grant's own lips the impressions of a great soldier 
respecting the display. 

But it would be idle to attempt to narrate all the doings of 
the travelers in the Prussian capital. The cordial greeting of 
the beginning of their visit was continued to the end. There 
were no lost moments. The city was thoroughly visited, and 
the institutions carefully studied. German respect for the dis- 
tinguished visitor was at its height when the journey was taken 
up for the North. 

Hamburg was taken on the way to the Scandinavian country. 
It was reached on July 2d, and found to be the busiest place 
in Germany, if not the pleasantest Their brief stay was a round 
of hospitalities and honors. At the public dinner given by the 
burgomaster, the health of the General was proposed, and 
he made a long response, which was filled with patriotic 
sentiments. 

Thence to Copenhagen, rich in history, proud in its people, 
full of the old Northern genius and tradition. After a rare 
reception and rarer send off, the party crossed the Categat to 
Gottenberg, where the ships were all gay with flags and the 
sailors brimful of warm welcome, songs and huzzas. Leaving 
this " Liverpool of the North," the route was to Christiana, 
capital of Norway. All along the way the peasantry were out 
in force at the stations, but here the ovation was spontaneous 
and overwhelming. King Oscar had come all the way from 
Stockholm to grace the occasion and take the General by the 
hand. It is July 13th. Fully ten thousand people throng the 
quays to participate in the reception, and swell the cheers. The 
General is not prepared for such enthusiasm among these 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 533 

distant, quiet, Northern people. But they love great soldiers. 
Gustavus Adolphus was of their race. 

After visiting the Royal Castle, Oscar's Hall, Castle Agger- 
shuus, the public gardens, and many charming points of 
observation, a carriage (karjoler) ride is taken into the interior, 
through the northern hay fields and over the mountains, where 
good views are had of the peasantry and the primitive agricul- 
tural methods of the North. On their return to Christiana, 
the King extended the honors of the country to the General 
in regal style. The ovation over his coming was extended on 
his departure. 

Then by rail over an uninviting country to Stockholm. 
Every station was decorated in honor of the travelers, and the 
General had to make an appearance and give a sentiment. At 
length they arrive in " The Venice of the North " — land and 
water, with quaint buildings, copies of a Southern clime, beau- 
tiful in nearly all respects. Stockholm teems with life, is 
modern in manner and notion. The National Museum is full 
of historic relics, mementoes of Gustavus and Charles XII. 
The Ridderholm Church is the Westminster Abbey of Stock- 
holm, and here the Diet assembles. All the palaces are opened 
to the General by orders of the King. That of Stockholm is 
visited, and it is royal indeed. 

Steamer is taken across the Baltic for St. Petersburg. After 
a long and stormy sail, Cronstadt, the seaport of the Russian 
capital, is reached. The numerous war ships are gay with 
bunting, and salutes are fired without stint. It is now July 
30th. There is a reception and addresses of welcome, and a 
steamer is boarded for St. Petersburg. Here the party is 
received by Minister Stoughton. The Emperor's aide-de-camp, 
Prince GortschakorT, calls with kind messages from the 
Emperor, and a grand audience is arranged for the next day, 
when his Imperial Highness Alexander and the General 
meet. 



534 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



The Emperor, Alexander II., soon to be the victim of assas- 
sins, introduced his entire court, among them the Czarowitz, 
who became Alexander III. and who seemed to be endowed 
with all the strength of character of his illustrious progenitors. 




ALEXANDER II. OF RUSSIA. 



The cordiality of this Russian reception was warm in the 
extreme. The Emperor and court officers turned it into a con- 
versation, and plied the General with questions concerning his 




CZAROWITZ, NOW ALEXANDER III., OF RUSSIA. 



536 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

country and his military campaigns. The Grand Duke Alexis 
recalled with pleasure his American trip. The Emperor's 
parting speech was: "Since the foundation of your govern- 
ment, relations between Russia and America have been of the 
friendliest character, and as long as I live nothing shall be 
spared to continue this friendship." Grant's reply was: "That 
although the two governments were very different in their 
character, the great majority of the American people were in 
sympathy with Russia, which good feeling he hoped would 
long continue." 

The General's visit to the veteran Gortschakoffwas one of 
his pleasantest. The imperial yacht was placed at his disposal 
to visit Peterhof, the Versailles of St. Petersburg, fifteen miles 
off. Then the capital itself is studied — its wonderful palaces 
and courts, Alexander's Column, the various high-spired 
churches, the Admiralty, Senate Palace, Holy Synod, St. 
Isaac's, War Office, the Academy of Science, the Exchange, 
Cathedral of St. Petersburg, whose patron saint is Our 
Lady of Kazan, the Winter Palace, etc. The streets them- 
selves were a study, with their droskies, and curious people 
and costumes. 

Then over the bee-line railroad to Moscow, four hundred 
miles, in twenty hours — Moscow, the old capital of Russia, and 
one of the most famous cities in the world, whose burning 
defeated Napoleon and destroyed his army. The visitors 
took in its sights, among which are the Kremlin, near 
the centre, Church of the Saviour, Cathedral of the Assump- 
tion, Tower of John the Great, Ivan Veliki, with its 
famous bells, Column of Sigismund III., the various palaces. 
Several pleasant days were spent here, and the welcome was 
hearty. 

The railroad is taken for Warsaw, Poland, six hundred miles 
off. It is a gloomy old city, yet it keeps green the memory of 
John Sobieski, who drove the Turks from Vienna. By August 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 537 

1 8th, the travelers were in Vienna, capital of Austria, where 
the General was received in cordial style by the American 
Legation. Count Andrassy gave him a reception on the 19th. 
On the 20th, his Imperial Highness, Francis Joseph, extended 
an audience, at the palace of Schoenbrunn, and on the 21st, 
both the General and Mrs. Grant were guests of the Imperial 
family. Their stay in this pleasant city — the Paris of Southern 
Europe — was continually enlivened by receptions and ovations. 
The sight-seeing visits embraced the Schoenbrunn, or " Palace 
of the Beautiful Fountain," the Prater, or grand park, Church 
of St. Stephens, the opera house, and the many other grand 
objects of curiosity and study. So delightfully had the time 
passed, that the day of starting away came and went before 
they were aware of it. 

Next to Munich — Athens of Germany — with its Ludwig- 
Strasse, rival of Berlin's Unter den Linden, famed for its art 
galleries, schools and beer. Then to Augsburg, famed for its 
Episcopal Palace, in whose halls was framed the celebrated 
" Augsburg Confession." The next place is Ulm. Thence the 
journey extended to Schaffhausen in Switzerland, then to 
Besancon in France, where the Swiss migrants make watches 
equal to those of Geneva, and where Victor Hugo was born. 
St. Etienne is reached — the Sheffield of France; then Vichy, 
noted for its thermal springs and appetizing waters. Thence 
the route lay through Gannat, Montlucon, Limoges, and the 
magnificent garden lands and vineyards of France, to Bordeaux, 
at the mouth of the Garonne, noted for its manufactures and 
commerce, especially in wines and brandies. 

Here General Grant received a message from the King of 
Spain asking him to time his visit, so as to be present at the 
review of the troops at Vittoria. This shortened his stay in 
Bordeaux, and the party started for Biarritz, a famous watering 
place, and rich in legends and gossip about princes. The 
party now enter Irun, in Spain. The station is draped with 



53§ LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

flags and bunting. A general of the staff of Alfonso II. wel- 
comes the General to the Iberian Peninsula, in the name of the 
king. The royal train is placed at the disposal of the travelers, 
and they speed to San Sebastian, Tolosa, Vergara, arriving at 
Vittoria, where the king solved the knotty question of how to 
receive an American ex-President by deciding that he should 
be received with the highest military honors. The King re- 
ceived the General very warmly at his residence, said he was 
anxious to see one of whom he had heard and read so much, 
and expressed his delight that he had arrived in time to see 
the grand review. 

By October 28th, the travelers were in Madrid, where the 
royal palace was visited, the Royal Museum of Art, the Escu- 
rial, and where the General was an eye witness of an attempt 
to assassinate the king. Thence they went to Lisbon in Por- 
tugal, a city so old that its foundations are beyond the time of 
history, and the port whence Vasco de Gama sailed on his 
passage around the Cape of Good Hope It has been nearly 
all built since the earthquake of 1755. The king, Don Louis I., 
came to Lisbon to meet the General and his party. He gave 
an audience in the palace and welcomed the travelers to the 
kingdom. On parting, the king asked the General to permit 
him to show his appreciation of the honor done his country by 
the visit, by giving him the grand cross of the Tower of the 
Sword. Don Fernando, father of the king, invited the General 
to his magnificent palace of Cintra, fifteen miles from Lisbon. 
It is the spot described in the first Canto of "Child Harold." 
A day was spent here and at Montserrat, when haste was made 
back to Lisbon to attend a dinner given by the king. 

The route then lay to Cordova, once renowned for its Roman 
and Moorish splendor. The governor and authorities were 
waiting at the station to receive the General. There was a 
pleasant time at this old Phoenician city, birthplace of Seneca 
and Lucan, with its mosque, eleven centuries old, its Place San 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 530 

Francesco, its old bridges, and quaint manufactures. On 
December 4th, Seville was reached, where the Duke of Mont- 
pensier was visited, and the historic gardens of St. Telmo. 
This is the most Spanish of all Spanish cities. It types Spain 
in everything that is clever, in much that is bad, and, alas ! in 
its decay ; but a decay amid history and beauty. 

From Seville the party go along the Guadalquiver, sixty- 
seven miles to Cadiz, which is reached on December 6th. And 
this ends the visit in sunny Spain. Journey is taken to Paris 
and thence to London, where Mrs. Grant goes to visit her 
daughter Airs. Sartoris, while the General runs to Dublin. 
Here he is received with true Irish greeting by the Lord Mayor 
and the American Consul. Thence to Londonderry. At all 
the intermediate stations the people are out in force, and press 
forward to shake his hand. At Londonderry he is welcomed 
by the Mayor and is made to sign the honorary roll and become 
a true Ulster Irishman. Thence to Coleraine and on to Belfast, 
everywhere meeting with receptions which evinced the warmth 
of the Irish heart. The reception at Belfast was imposing and 
extraordinary. The platform was carpeted and the people 
were out in throngs. The city council welcomed him. All 
the public buildings were draped in English and American 
colors. All the prominent citizens visited him at his rooms, 
and he in turn paid his respects. There were public dinners, 
and other manifestations of kindness and honor. 

An immense crowd saw him off to Dublin. This gave 
opportunity for touching farewell scenes at Portadown, Dun- 
dalk, Drogheda, Belfast and Dublin itself. London is reached 
again and then Paris, where a party is forming to visit India. 

On January 24th, 1879, the party composed of General Grant, 
Mrs. Grant, Colonel Fred. D. Grant, Mr. A. E. Borie, ex-Sec- 
retary of the Navy, Dr. Keating, of Philadelphia and John 
Russell Young, left Marseilles on the " Labourdonnais" for 
Alexandria and Suez, where the " Venetia," is to be boarded 



540 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

for India. Then down through the Red Sea, past Sinai, and 
out past Aden, into the dreary wastes of the Indian Ocean. 
It is February 6th, 1879. On the 13th, Bombay was sighted. 
The English men-of-war and huge ships of commerce were 
dressed with flags. Boats put off from the flagships with offi- 
cers on board, who welcomed the General to India. Captain 
Frith came with a letter from the governor extending a similar 
welcome, and offering the free use of the government house at 
Malabar Point. At the landing were crowds of citizens and a 
grand turnout of military. Large delegations of officials, rep- 
resenting every branch of power, contributed to the eclat of 
the reception. And now as guests of the governor at his 
splendid mansion on Malabar Point, the party proceed to study 
and enjoy the rich and novel scenes of the Orient. Everything, 
dress, manners, customs, art, architecture, religion, is strange to 
the travelers. The attentions paid to the guests are hearty and 
continuous — warm like the climate, grand like the foliage. 
Every appearance of the General is a signal for a crowd and 
procession of curious youths and anxious servants or street 
vendors. Travel was not possible at midday. Therefore the 
mornings and evenings were dedicated to jaunts and sight 
seeing. The men-of-war in the harbor were visited, the Ele- 
phanta caves, the Tower of Silence, the Parsee School. Then 
came the state reception by the governor, which exceeded 
anything in ostentatious splendor the party had yet seen, and 
also in its strange intermixture of races and languages. After 
a series of farewell calls, the party took the train for Icbulpur 
to visit the far-famed marble rocks of the neighborhood, and 
the sacred river Neirhedda. A run is then made to Allahabad 
on the Ganges and at the junction of the Bombay railroad with 
that running from Calcutta to Delhi. 

At Agra the Taj is visited, said to be the most beautiful 
building in the world, all marble. Here too the Hindoo mer- 
chant is seen in his true native role, sharp, shrewd, obsequious, 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 541 

importunate. The palace of the Maharajah, part dwelling 
place, part fort, is a beautiful monument to the old Mogul chief- 
tain Akbar. A ride is taken to Jeypore, whose princes claim 
to be the most ancient in the world, and whose capital, Amber, 
is one of the most curious sights in India. The Maharajah is 
a little old man, full of modern notions. He gave the General 
a royal reception and showed all the curious things in his 
capital to the travelers. Here the party enjoyed the sensation 
of their first ride on elephants, up the heights which lead to 
the royal palace, where the view is simply magnificent, and 
where, as part of the Maharajah's entertainment, the historic 
Nautch dance was witnessed. Both the General and Mrs. 
Grant were crowned with special honors and loaded with tokens 
of perpetual friendship on their departuare. 

Journey is now taken by narrow-gauge railroad to Bhurt- 
poor with its gorgeous royal palace and to Futtehpoor Sikra, 
renowned for its elegant ruins and ancient splendors. Train 
is taken for Delhi, beautiful in roads and gardens, the Rome 
of India — sad in ancient history, monument of repeated inva- 
sion and destruction, mixed now in its business, its people, its 
spirit, its traditions. Here the magnificence of Humayun's 
tomb vies with that of the Taj. It marks the end of the great 
Tamerlane dynasty. The travelers meet with the usual Oriental 
reception, and are bidden the same formal good-byes. Then 
they are off to Lucknow, centre of the Sepoy Rebellion and 
scene of more cruelty on the part of England than even bar- 
baric ingenuity could have invented. Not all the penance of 
a cycle can atone for the harmless thousands, if not millions, 
who fell before civilized atrocity in that hour when simple bar- 
barism resolved to be free from the yoke of the East India 
Company. 

Benares comes next in the journey. It is entered amid a 
blare of trumpets and a turnout of soldiers and officials, 
English and native. It was night, and all the route of the pro- 



54 2 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

cession was illuminated. Here the temples were visited. It 
is the city favored of the gods. A sail is taken down the 
Ganges to view the sacred bathing places. Everything is sug- 
gestive of ancient history here, and of the old gods and 
religions. It was the Buddhist city, and the foremost in Asia, 
in wealth, population, dignity and sanctity — city of labyrinths, 
shrines, balconies, minarets, oriels, sacred apes and bulls, 
priests and beggars. It is wondrous yet, a forest of temples, a 
busy city, a dirty one. It is Brahminic, priestly, mysterious — 
a study, sitting as of old on the Ganges, a shrine yet, toward 
which millions turn with pious steps and adorative hearts. 

After a long hot ride from Benares, the travelers arrived in 
Calcutta, on March ioth. An escort of cavalry conducted the 
party to the Government House, where the Viceroy of India, 
Lord Lytton, received General Grant with great kindness. 
An honorary banquet came off in the evening, and the next 
day an excursion to Banackpoor the Viceroy's country seat. 
The next day came the state reception at the Government 
House, at which all the notables, English and native, were 
present. Then the sights were seen, the temples, colleges, 
marts, and this most mixed and European of Indian cities was 
left by the steamer " Simla," for Rangoon. The sail was down 
the Hoogley river and out into the Bay of Bengal, which was 
crossed March 19th. The landing at Rangoon was amid a 
multitude of curious folks, which lined shipping and docks. A 
cordial official reception was tendered, and the party were 
driven to the Government House, whose freedom they enjoyed. 
This city changes the type of Oriental civilizations from Hin- 
doo to Chinese. It is a regular city, well shaded, busy, Bhud- 
dic. Its pagoda is magnificent. Its commerce in rice, wares, 
precious minerals and stones is large. The visit here was 
pleasant, and ended by running to Penang. 

Thence the journey lay to Malacca, famed for the triumphs 
of the Portuguese discoverer, Alphonso Albuquerque, and the 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 543 

apostle St. Francis Xavier. Singapore is next reached, where 
the ships are gay with bunting and a splendid reception awaits 
the party. The stay here was a round of dinners and recep- 
tions. This centre and heart of the Malay Archipelago is a 
modern city and a strange admixture of nationalities. Its com- 
merce embraces all the spices and products of the tropical 
East. Its trades, shops and traffic are on the street and in the 
open air. On April 9th, the party embarked on the steamer 
" Kong See" for Bankok. The route lay across the Gulf of 
Siam, noted for its storms. On the 14th the royal yacht met 
the steamer with greeting from the King of Siam. Bankok — 
the Venice of the East — received the travelers with royal 
pomp. The demonstrations were hearty and showy in the 
extreme, enough so to embarrass the guests, used though 
they were to the lavish forms of Oriental welcome and hospi- 
tality. The kings here are celestial, not earth crowned and 
earth endowed. They reign by divine right only ; hence their 
excesses of display and assumption. They are imperial dig- 
nity run to seed, important except in show, yet kindly disposed 
and with good moral instincts. Monarchy is absolute. Ruling 
is carried on from the centre, through an army of subordinates. 
Hence the intrigues and dangers of Oriental supremacy. Ban- 
kok is a hive of industry and a museum. There are temples, 
shrines, fine mansions, palaces, gardens. The people are busy 
and bright — educated, so to speak. The King's reception in 
the royal palace was, notwithstanding its gaudiness and pain- 
ful elaboration, one of extreme method. It was representative 
of State, religion, institution, the people, the nationality. It was 
typical. It was met by the guests in the spirit with which it 
was given, and between the King and the General there sprang 
up quite a cordial intimacy, which must have been a wonder- 
ful condescension on the part of one divinely appointed. The 
dinner which followed ran off into an Eastern form of toasts 
and speeches, and the General's reply to a toast in his honor 



544 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

was full of friendly sentiments. After a visit to Ayuthia, the 
ancient capital of Siam, and the King's country palace, the 
royal yacht " Vesatu," was boarded, which sailed down the 
river amid loud salutes and splendid farewell scenes. 

The return to Singapore was on April 22d. Here ship was 
taken for Hong Kong, with a stop at Saigon. Hong Kong 
was reached April 30th. The American gun-boat " Ashuelot " 
and all the merchantmen in the harbor dressed ship in honor 
of the General's arrival. The " Ashuelot " fired a salute of 
twenty-one guns. The landing steps were covered with ever- 
greens, flags and bamboo decorations, a guard of honor was 
drawn up on the pier and a detail of police lined the road to 
the Government House. As welcoming officer, the Governor 
took the head of the procession, and amid much ceremony 
presented the General and party to Chinese citizens, British 
officers and prelates of the Catholic and Episcopal churches. 
Here the visitors had a pleasant stay, made up of honorary 
visits and receptions. On the morning of May 5th, they 
boarded the " Ashuelot " for Canton. 

Hitherto, the trip had been through that part of Chinese 
territory which was under foreign control. Now true Chinese 
territory was entered. The Pekin authorities had sent word to 
Canton that the American ex-President should be received with 
unusual distinction. So at the Bogue forts the Chinese gun- 
boats were in line to welcome the " Ashuelot " with a salute. 
As fort after fort was passed, salutes were fired. Night came 
on before the " Ashuelot," piloted by a fleet of Chinese gun- 
boats and surrounded by craft of every kind, reached the city. 
Lanterns of every color took the place of sunlight, and boats, 
wharves and landing place were decorated with them. There 
was no further demonstration that night, but on the morrow 
the Viceroy issued his orders to the citizens to do the illus- 
trious foreigner honor. The whole city turned out to catch 
sight of the " American King," as he rode through the streets 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. $4$ 

to the reception at the Viceroy's palace. The vehicles were 
Sedan chairs borne on the shoulders of men. They expected 
to see an " American King " clad in gold, blazing in diamonds, 
and embowered in gaudy feathers. They saw instead a plain, 
unbedizened citizen with no insignia of rank. It was a 
strange sight, stranger than anything yet met with on the 
journey, to see a teeming city give up an entire day to witness- 
ing, and participating in, the pompous ceremonies of welcome 
to a foreigner, whose coming had been disoussed in every 
bazar and silk spinnery. The distance to the palace was three 
miles, and there was ample opportunity to see and be seen. 
Once at the palace, the Viceroy in mandarin's hat, buttons and 
robes of silk extends formal salutation, introduces the General 
to the assembled officials and bids him welcome to China. 
Tea was then served in regal style, followed by a sumptuous 
dinner in the gardens of the palace, to which the strangers 
tried to do justice with chopsticks, and during which the 
Chinese bands dispensed their peculiar music. Almost the 
entire visit to Canton was one of cordial and honorary cere- 
mony, which was very strange in view of prohibition on for- 
eigners up to a comparatively late period, and the very cool 
and suspicious receptions extended to all former foreign dig- 
nitaries. The party were thus obliged to forego anything like 
a detailed study of the palace, but this they did not regret, for 
once forced to study Canton as Canton they found nothing so 
interesting. The narrow, busy streets, the myriads of artizans, 
the working women, the peculiar industries, the queer com- 
merce, the strange institutions, the wonderful manners and 
customs, the quaint art and architecture — these were what 
struck the eye and engaged the mind. After a magnificent 
state banquet as a farewell, the travelers^ started for Macao. 
The last word of the Viceroy to the General, was, " Be kind 
to our people in the United States, for you have a hundred 
thousand Cantonese among you." It is to be feared that 

35 



54-6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

neither the General nor any other person is sufficiently strong 
in himself to meet the kind wishes of this heathen Viceroy. 
We are a highly intellectual, liberal and Christian people, and 
as a learned Chinese in San Francisco puts it, " quite too busy 
preparing a home for Chinamen in heaven to think of either 
giving them a home or tolerating their presence on earth." 

Macao, noted for its grotto of Camoens, received the visitors 
for a day. They steamed on to Hong Kong, in order to take 
journey along the Chinese coast, northward. On May 28th, 
Swatow, a treaty port, was reached, where the travelers were 
welcomed with regal ceremonies. Then the "Ashuelot" 
steamed to Amoy, another treaty port, where Commander Boyd, 
of the American man-of-war " Ranger," welcomed the General. 
Then the steamer sailed for Shanghai, which was sighted on 
May 17th. Here the forts, Chinese gunboats, and all the 
armed vessels fired salutes, and the U. S. man-of-war " Mon- 
ocacy," carrying a committee of citizens, steamed out to meet 
the " Ashuelot." Not less than a hundred thousand people 
lined the banks of the river to witness the landing. Jt was a 
holiday, and every one could come. The Chinese governor 
and municipal council received the General, amid American 
music, and with a formal address, to which he replied : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very much obliged to you for 
the hearty welcome which you have paid me, and I must say 
I have been not a little surprised, and agreeably surprised. I 
have now been a short time in the country of which Shanghai 
forms so important a part in a commercial way, and I have 
seen much to interest me and much to instruct me. I wish I 
had known ten years ago what I have lately learned. I hope 
to carry back to my country a report of all I have seen in this 
part of the world, for it will be of interest and possibly of great 
use. I thank you again for the hearty welcome you have 
extended." 

After these ceremonies there was a military procession and 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 547 

grand escort to the Consulate. It was said that the only other 
occasions on which Shanghai had ever extended honors to a 
foreigner, were the visits of the Duke of Edinburgh and Grand 
Duke Alexis. The evening was given up to a state dinner and 
general illumination. Of it a morning paper said : " Never 
before has there been such a blaze of candles in Shanghai." 
The honorary fetes were continuous till the time came to leave, 
which was May 24th. 

The next place .reached was Tientsin, presided over by Li 
Hung Chang, the Bismarck of the East. His territory lies on 
the way to the capital, Pekin, and protects it. Li Hung is a 
great general, and took a romantic interest in Grant's arrival, 
and was the first to welcome him to the chief province of the 
Empire. As the " Ashuelot " came into the Peiho river there 
was such an array of gaily-decked vessels, firing of salutes, 
crowding; of sisrht-seers. as to make a ceremonial as vivid and 
imposing as any yet witnessed. When the two great generals 
met, they studied each other for a moment, and then there 
sprang up a friendship, as if by magic, which was warm and 
lasting. There were mutual visits, and long interesting talks 
about armies, institutions, resources, commerce, manufactures, 
etc., with all which the Viceroy was delighted. It may be 
truthfully said that no illustrious foreigner ever received such 
a recognition in China as did General Grant. 

The journey from Tientsin lay up the Peiho, one hundred 
and fifty miles to Pekin, the capital. The trip gave the party 
a thorough insight into Chinese civilization and scenery. The 
river proved too crooked and shallow for the "Ashuelot." Other 
boats were substituted, and it seemed as if a fleet were ascend- 
ing the river when all the shallops bearing the distinguished 
party got together. The trip was exasperatingly slow, the 
chief power of the boats being man power, furnished from the 
shore, like mule power on a canal. The river journey ended 
at Tung Chow, where a great body of officials, and a mob 



$48 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

with chairs, met the party to conduct them to Pekin. The 
orders from Prince Kung, the Prince Regent, were to show 
the General every courtesy possible and treat him with a 
respect never before shown to a foreigner. From Tung Chow 
to Pekin, he was carried in a chair borne by eight bearers, an 
honor paid only to the highest persons in China. The whole 
city was out to receive the guests. It took five hours to move 
from Tung Chow to Pekin, so slow was the motion and so 
thronged the ways. The great city reached, and gateway 
entered, there was welcome rest at the American Legation. 
The city is one of trees and wide lanes, called streets. There 
was an evening reception at the Legation, and general intro- 
ductions. Then came the military and civil governors, with 
cards, and tokens and wonderful ceremonies. Next day the 
very formal audience with the Emperor, a child of seven years, 
was gone through with. Then a visit to Yamen, Prince Kung, 
an interesting person who welcomed the General heartily and 
gave real princely entertainment. This visit was returned by 
the Prince, who delighted to talk with the General about 
America and civilization and resources in other lands. There 
were visits to the Imperial Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and 
other points of interest. 

By June 1 2th, the party were back in Tientsin, where another 
welcome was extended by the Viceroy. At both Pekin and 
Tientsin, the General was urged to act as mediator in the disputes 
between China and Japan, a commission he delicately declined 
as a visitor. The party now took the " Richmond " for Japan. 
Steam was made along the shores of China to view the " Great 
Wall," built twenty-two hundred years ago, and for a distance 
of twelve hundred and fifty miles inland, more wonderful than 
the Pyramids or the ruins of Thebes. Then the gulf is crossed 
to Chefoo, where a reception is tendered. The " Richmond" is 
then off for Japan direct, and sails, June 2 1st, into the harbor 
of Nagasaki, one of the prettiest in the world. The ships are 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 549 

gay with bunting. The men-of-war thunder. The city is out 
for a holiday greeting of the "American Mikado," as he is 
called. In Japan the earth is green — bright, cheerful sight 
after the parched earth of the tropics. Nature seemed to be 
merry as well as the people. An escort from the Emperor 
came aboard the "Richmond." They were to attend the 
General as the Emperor's personal representatives as long as 
he chose to stay in Japan. The delegation was headed by 
Prince Dati, a leading daimio. The General was therefore the 
nation's guest. On June 23d, there was a State dinner at the 
Government House in Grant's honor. Here he made one of 
the longest and best speeches on his journey, which he con- 
cluded with "The prosperity and independence of Japan." 
Visits were paid to all the palaces of importance. A feature 
was the announcement that a monument would be erected in 
honor of the General's visit, for which he was asked to write 
an inscription, which he did, and in which he alluded poetically 
to the memorial trees which he and Mrs. Grant had planted 
the day before. 

The guests did not tire of Nagasaki. One never does. But 
time passed. After a gorgeous fete, the party took the " Ash- 
uelot," June 26th, for a journey among the beautiful Japanese 
islands to Hiogo, where a landing was prohibited on account 
of the cholera. But deputations came aboard to congratulate 
the party and tender hospitalities, if things were only different. 
The run is then made to Sumida Bay, closed to foreigners, but 
opened to the General and his party in the name of the Em- 
peror. The town of Shiguoka is here visited, a purely 
Japanese town, which is out in force to see and welcome the 
foreigners. 

Then sail is set for Yokohama, which is reached July 3d, 
amid harbor scenes more brilliant than any yet seen. The 
princes, ministers and high officials received the General at 
the landing. They were not all strangers, for Yokohama is 



550 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

in direct steam communication with San Francisco, and many 
of these functionaries had been across the water. After a set of 
brief but full ceremonies, a car ride is taken to Tokio, and the 
party are conducted to the Emperor's summer palace at Enri- 
okwan. An audience with the Emperor is arranged for July 
4th, our national holiday. The General took along all the 
Naval, Consular and other American officers in the city, and 
thus appeared with quite a formidable and representative 
party. The palace was reached and found of simple con- 
struction, though the grounds were spacious and fine. The 
party was received in state, the cabinet and ministers of every 
description being present. The Emperor and Empress received 
in a room alone, and with solemn etiquette. For them this 
reception was a revolution, it being regarded as too great a 
condescension for those so divinely appointed to receive for- 
eigners. But there was a complete unbending of royal dignity, 
even to the extent of a welcome speech on the Emperor's part, 
to which Grant responded in a kind and happy vein. He con- 
cluded w T ith, " I thank you very much. I have visited many 
countries and seen many beautiful places, but I have seen none 
so beautiful and charming as Japan." 

All day the visitors poured in to see the General and party. 
It was like a state occasion at our own White House. In the 
evening there was a dinner in one of the summer gardens, at 
which regular Fourth of July speeches were made. On July 
7th, there was a review of the troops by the Emperor, to which 
the guests were invited, there being a special desire on the 
Emperor's part that the General should pass on the merits of 
his army. Then there came an exceptional event in the history 
of modern Japan — a personal interview between the Emperor 
and General, at which matters of state, resource and civilization 
were talked over. It was free, cordial and profitable to both 
parties. On July 17th, a visit is paid to the shrine and temple 
of Nikko, the vehicles being hand carriages, as is the custom, 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 551 

This is the spot sacred to Iyeyas the Solon and Confucius of 
Japan. After a round of pleasant entertainments by the people 
of Nikko, the party left, on June 28th, for Tokio and the com- 
fortable quarters of the palace Enriokwan. 

The culminating feature in the General's Japan visit was the 
public festival at Uyeno on August 25th, where every phase 
of life bent to the occasion. Tokio fluttered in flags. A holi- 
day was proclaimed. The air rung with festival notes. Dis- 
plays were lavish, beyond anything ever dreamed of. It was 
a crush and a fete such as only Japanese customs would 
sanction or Japanese imagination could devise. Everybody 
was in it from the Emperor to the humblest servant. It typed 
the highest honors of the nationality, and was intended as a 
grand and impressive conclusion to the General's Asiatic trip. 

The party now prepared to leave this country of gardens, of 
schools, of numerous servants, of ancient yet progressive insti- 
tutions, of quaint and good-hearted people. Their last days 
were crowded with official visits and manifestations of respect. 
No part of their visit had been so marked by tokens of regard, 
by extreme cordiality, by splendor of reception, heartfelt desire 
to honor and please, as this to Japan. The country was left 
with regret, for it is the happy abiding place of a simple, true, 
educated and quaintly artistic people. There was a final round 
of state dinners and official good-byes, and the party leave 
Tokio amid a set of scenes as brilliant as those which signal- 
ize their reception. Train is taken for Yokohama, where the 
" City of Tokio " is boarded for San Francisco. And Japan never 
witnessed such a scene as the parting. The harbor was lined 
with boats large and small. The great ships thundered. Cheers 
rent the skies. The good ship sailed away amid the echoing 
huzzas, loud expressions of good wishes for a safe journey, 
and prolonged farewells of the happy dwellers of the green 
and luxuriant isles of the Orient. 

On Saturday, September 20th, 1879, the eighteenth day of 



554 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the voyage from Yokohama, the "City of Tokio" came in 
sight of California. The pilot boat brought newspapers, and 
the General read with surprise of the compliment in store for 
him. As the ship entered her dock at night the city of San 
Francisco burst into illumination, the great guns thundered 
welcome, whistles blew, the people rushed in cheering crowds 
to the wharves, and principal streets. By eleven o'clock that 
night the party reached their hotel, and sought much-needed 
rest. We cannot undertake to narrate the receptions which 
followed, the round of hospitalities, the exhibitions of favor, 
the ceremonies of honor. They were American, and such as 
Americans extend only to their greatest and best, their most 
admired and beloved. Cities and communities vied with 
each other in doing him honor and receiving him again into 
the folds of citizenship. He was our own now and forever. 
Proudly had he represented us around the world, among all 
nations, kindreds and tongues. Proudly should he be greeted 
as he passed from place to place in our midst, completing the 
circuit of the earth, which his fame had long since girdled. 

The wild Yosemite is visited, the giant pines, one and all of 
the scenes which make the Pacific slope beautiful and wonder- 
ful. The party then start for Portland, Oregon/where they are 
received by the Grand Army. Salem and other places are 
honored by a visit, when they return to San Francisco. Before 
leaving the coast a visit is paid to Sacramento, October 23d, 
where there is a grand reception and a sham battle in his 
honor. The silver mines of Nevada are now taken in. At 
Virginia City the reception is hearty and imposing. Then they 
descend into the consolidated Virginia mine, seventeen hun- 
dred and fifty feet below ground, where Mrs. Grant is presented 
with a gold brick, two and a half inches by four inches, and a 
phial of gold dust. The Sutro Tunnel was next visited. A 
special train now bore the party eastward from Virginia City, 
through Reno, Winnemucca, Ogden, Cheyenne, to Omaha, on 



TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 555 

Saturday, November 1st. Everywhere the enthusiasm was 
general. At Omaha the demonstration was unsurpassed. The 
city gave itself up to a holiday. And so from that point to 
the General's home at Galena, November 5th, where the recep- 
tion was an ovation unequalled in fervor. By November 12th, 
the party were in Chicago, where they were greeted by a formal 
procession and review. Be it understood that throughout, the 
General was called upon for speeches, and many of them were 
strikingly full of apt sentiment, though necessarily brief. At 
every town of importance there were receptions and ovations, 
so that never monarch passed through a land amid such spon- 
taneous out-pourings and such unanimity of acclamation. 

The route then lay through Indianapolis, Logansport, Louis- 
ville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Harrisburg, to Philadel- 
phia. At each point the welcome seemed to grow more en- 
thusiastic, the demonstrations more elaborate and hearty. But 
it remained for Philadelphia, the starting point of the party 
around the world more than two years and a half before, to 
eclipse all that had yet been seen in the shape of brilliant re- 
ception and gorgeous street pageantry. It was a fitting closing 
to a notable trip and set the seal on that circuit of travel which 
enveloped the globe. The time was December 16th, 1879. 
The time of starting had been May 17th, 1877. 

The General was met by the mayor and city officials. The 
mayor said : " As I bade you God speed upon your journey, I 
now welcome you home ; and trust that in your stay among us 
you may feel that you are at home, and that the people of 
Philadelphia, by their hearty greeting, may impress you that it 
is indeed the City of Brotherly Love." 

The General responded in a brief speech of thanks and ex- 
pression of pleasure at his safe return to a place he always liked 
to call home. Then began to move one of the longest 
and grandest processions ever witnessed in any city. Arches 
with mottoes overhung the streets. Houses were gay with 



556 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

flags and colors. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the 
streets and rent the air with cheers of welcome. The proces- 
sion represented the civic authorities, political bodies, profes- 
sions, commercial and mercantile interests, trades, occupations, 
and every phase of organized labor. It really never ended, 
for night came on before it was possible for its rearward sec- 
tions to complete the route, and they filed away by other 
streets. In the evening the city was illuminated and old Inde- 
pendence Hall, by the aid of calcium lights, was resplendent in 
a glory never before seen. 

His stay in the city was a round of receptions, dinners, toasts 
and speech-making, first at Carpenters Hall, the Nation's Birth- 
place, then Independence Hall, then as a guest of the city, then 
the Grand Army Post No. I, of which he was a member, then 
the combined Posts at the Academy of Music, then by the 
Commercial Exchange, then by the Public Schools, then by 
the Union League on December 23d, which closed a week, 
during which the city gave itself over almost entirely to wel- 
come ceremonies of a kind unparalleled in its history and which 
the presence of no other American citizen could have evoked. 

The "Tour Around the World" thus happily ended. It was 
not a journey, but a triumphal march by one who typed a 
great nation both in its martial forces and peaceful prowess. 
He entered principalities and stood before thrones, threaded 
dynasties and mingled freely with civilizations, not more be- 
cause of unsurpassed individual exploit and exceptional public 
and private worth, not more because he was to us great and 
noble and good, than because he was a true exponent of 
American character and institutions, whose fame had fortunately 
preceded him and given him a sesame to every heart and every 
affection from purpled king to humble laborer. He honored 
his nation more than he was honored, and memory of him will 
be as sweet seed sown for a harvest of comity, peace and love 
among all people. 




GRAND RECEPTION OF GEN. GRANT Phila., Dec. 16, 1879. 5: . 



CHAPTER XXV. 

1880. 

BEFORE the end of President Grant's second term, his name 
was mentioned by some of his admirers in connection 
with a candidacy for a third term. Although there was noth- 
ing to prohibit this in the Constitution, nor in any law, it was 
deemed sufficiently contrary to established custom to awaken 
hostility to Grant, which, in the heat of narrow partisanship, 
took a personal turn. In order to crush the thought in its 
infancy- — ambition for a third term he had not — the word 
" Csesarism " was invented, and he was pictured in the oppos- 
ing party journals as one desirous of perpetuating his political 
ascendancy indefinitely. Had this unjust imputation been con- 
fined to political opponents exclusively, it would have attracted 
but little attention. But it unfortunately found encouragement 
among some of the more ambitious, or less scrupulous, men 
and papers of his own party, and was wrought up till it became 
quite a sentiment. 

It had never been his custom to reply to attack. His works 
were his vindication. And as to preferment of any kind, no 
man could say that he had ever solicited position in his life, 
ever held one except in obedience to a most pronounced public 
will, or ever done aught while in one that even savored of dis- 
regard of law or popular sentiment. While this should have 
been sufficient answer at the time to every imputation, he de- 
parted from his customary silence Sufficiently long to set himself 
straight before the country in a letter, in which he said : 

" Now for the third term. I do not want it any more than I 
558 



i88o. 559 

did the first. I would not write or utter a word to change the 
will of the people in expressing and having their choice. The 
question of the number of terms allowed to any one executive 
can only come up fairly in the shape of a proposition 
to amend the Constitution — a shape in which all political 
parties can participate, fixing the length of time or the 
number of terms for which any one person shall be eligible 
for the office of President. Until such an amendment is 
adopted, the people cannot be restricted in their choice by 
resolution further than they are now restricted as to age, 
nativity, etc. 

" It may happen in the future history of the country, that to 
change an executive because he has been eight years in office, 
will prove unfortunate, if not disastrous. The idea that any 
man could elect himself President, or even renominate himself, 
is preposterous. It is a reflection upon the intelligence and 
patriotism of the people to suppose such a thing possible. Any 
man can destroy his chances for the office, but no man can 
force an election, or even a nomination. To recapitulate: 
I am not, nor have I ever been, a candidate for a renomination. 
I would not accept a nomination, if it were tendered, unless 
it should come under such circumstances as to make it an im- 
perative duty — circumstances not likely to arise." 

The man who bore unmurmuringly and silently — except as 
his voice opened in the above letter — all the charges of a desire 
to perpetuate his power, withdrew from public life at the end 
of his term of office in the most quiet and unostentatious 
manner; not with a sigh of regret, as one having ambition, but 
glad of an opportunity to re-enter private station and his own 
modest home circle. Thus he returned to the bosom of the 
people, after serving their will in the highest capacities vouch- 
safed to man, and went seeking nothing, desiring nothing, so 
much as the privileges of a retirement that could only be dis- 
turbed by a call as loud and imperative as that which made 



560 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

him a leader of armies and holder of the destinies of a free 
and united people. 

While in this, as in all attacks upon him, time and a better 
knowledge of the man came to his vindication, and even turned 
invidious partisan remark into praise, the political events which 
led to the campaign of 1880 again involved him. He was less 
than ever an aspirant for nomination, and more than ever a 
passive instrument in the hands of his friends and admirers. 
Sift fact and sentiment as closely as the historian may, there 
does not appear a single trace of effort or inclination on his 
part for a nomination in that year. Yet circumstances, over 
which he had no control, and with which he had no identity, 
were given such a turn as to reopen the stale cry of " Caesarism." 
There were factional differences inside of his party. There 
was much unrest over the mild and indecisive policy of Pres- 
ident Hayes. There was growing apprehension of a solid 
political South which should overshadow the more populous 
North, as in the old slave days. There was conviction that 
this supremacy did not, or would not, rest on a full and free 
expression of the sentiments of all the people there. There 
was hope that it was not too late to introduce there a divided 
sentiment, and secure a free play of individual and party rights, 
such as prevailed elsewhere. Earnest had been given that the 
time was ripe for a break in the closely-riveted partyism of the 
section, provided a man in whom all could have confidence, 
who was sterling in character, strong in will, consistent in con- 
viction, kind and considerate in policy, could become a leader. 
Even promise had been passed that more than one of the 
Southern States would swing from their old political moor- 
ings under the leadership of distinguished citizens, if some 
one could be raised to power who could inspire respect, 
and whose terms of political co-operation would not prove 
humiliating. 

In so far as all these existing facts were shaping sentiment, 



i88o. 561 

or were reflexive of sentiment, it was perhaps unfortunate for 
Grant that the popular eye intuitively took him in when it 
scanned the political horizon for a Presidential candidate who 
would fill every requisite. Though a term had intervened, 
still the anti-third-term spirit existed, and it was now used even 
more freely, if not more rancorously, than before, because the 
contention was inside of the Republican party, and family 
quarrels are never free from bitterness and excitement. Again, 
a candidate of his weight would be a most disturbing element 
in a party convention. It would unsettle the drift of things 
political, overturn calculations, destroy the chances of aspirants, 
defeat ambitions. In many senses it would be a new departure 
in party proceedings, if not in party policy. Hence, we say it 
was perhaps unfortunate for Grant that, while as to general 
needs he was the ideal candidate, as to strict party discipline 
and tradition, he was a subject of discord, though by no move- 
ment or expression of his own. This is as things stood 
in the mists of the morning, prior to the real campaign of 
1880. 

But as the campaign progressed, and matters and men became 
more involved, acerbities quickened on the one hand, while on 
the other the impression grew that no one but a man of well- 
known record and firm administrative capacity could meet the 
rising contingency without risk. There were States which 
some shrewd men regarded as pivotal, yet unsafe for any of 
the known aspirants for Presidential honors. One of these — 
New York — was held to be doubtful for any man the Repub- 
licans could name, except General Grant. Here was another 
cause for a crystalization of thought about him, which, so far 
as he was concerned, was simply a fate. 

As party work began to centralize in the respective 

States and communities, and local leaders to place themselves 

at the heads of followings, each using his choice for candidate 

as a Shibboleth, and his favorite policy as argument, it was 

36 



562 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

found, amid all the clashings and bitterness, that the use of 
Grant's name was most effective in all those places in the North 
upon which a doubt of success rested, and in the South where 
a revolution in political sentiment was desirable. It was 
but natural that these leaders should take advantage of this, 
coupled as it was with Grant's well-known convictions against 
taking office, except in consonance with a decided expression 
of the popular will. We cannot undertake to say how far 
they thereby expected to further their personal ends, but will 
suppose that they acted upon honest conviction and for the 
party and public good. This we accord also to those who 
took such violent issue with them, but who unfortunately 
shaped their issue so as to make personal detraction an argu- 
ment which only solidified opposition and became, in the end, 
a source of regret. 

All things considered, the preliminary campaign of 1880 
was, in a political sense, a natural and proper one, and in a pro- 
gressive sense, a necessary one. In its bitter methods, its 
extreme personalism, its loose imputations, it was unnatural 
and unworthy. There were many great and good names 
before the country and each name represented a fair following. 
The most conspicuous were those of James G. Blaine, John 
Sherman, Elihu B. Washburne, Senator Windom, Senator 
Edmunds. These were directly in the field. Grant was not 
so, by any wish, request or act of his own. It was not even 
known whether he would accept the nomination. From what 
is known of his character and convictions, he most certainly 
would not have accepted if the majority had not been em- 
phatic, and so plain an expression of the popular will as to 
make acceptance clearly a duty. 

As the respective State conventions were held, those who 
were using his name carried delegates to the National Con- 
vention in most of the Southern States, and largely in New 
York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, with smaller numbers in 



i8So. 563 

many other States. Altogether, they would not foot up 
enough to control the convention, but they would be strong — 
stronger than those for any other candidate — and with the use 
of the unit rule, such as had generally prevailed, they could 
nominate. This was felt by the friends of all the candidates. 
Hence, to break the unit rule, by which the States should vote 
in accordance with the sentiment of a majority of their dele- 
gates, became an object on the part of the friends of all the 
candidates, except Grant. They broke it, and also raised and 
carried the issue of district representation in the States. This 
left every candidate on his merits. 

The convention met in Chicago, June 5th, 1880, and sat 
nearly a week. Grant's name was brought directly before the 
convention by Senator Conkling, of New York, who urged 
that the need of the hour was a man who could carry 
doubtful Northern, and some of the Southern States. As to 
the " third term " idea, he failed to see why it could be a valid 
objection to a man that he had been weighed in the balance 
and not found wanting, or that he had obtained experience 
which rendered him better fitted for the duties confided to his 
care. He commended his civic policy in establishing interna- 
tional arbitration, opposing inflation and paving the way to 
resumption of specie payments, reducing the expenses of the 
government, and adhering to an intelligent principle of recon- 
struction. He then said : 

" When asked whence comes our candidate, we say from 
Appomattox. The election before us will be the Austerlitz of 
American politics. It will decide whether for years to come 
the country will be Republican or Cossack. The need of the 
hour is a candidate who can carry doubtful States, North and 
South, and believing that he more surely than any other can 
carry New York against any opponent, and can carry not only 
the North, but several States of the South, New York is for 
Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living Republicans can carry 



564 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

New York. Never defeated in war or in peace, his name is 
the most illustrious borne by any living man. His services 
attest his greatness and the country knows them by heart. His 
fame was born not alone of things written and said, but of the 
arduous greatness of things done, and dangers and emergen- 
cies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in 
vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with 
such confidence and trust. Standing on the highest eminence 
of human destination, and having filled all lands with his 
renown, modest, simple and self-poised, he has seen not only 
the titled but the poor and the lowly, in the uttermost ends of 
the earth, rise and uncover before him. He has studied the 
needs and defects of many systems of government and he 
comes back a better American than ever, with a wealth of 
knowledge and experience added to the hard common sense 
which so conspicuously distinguished him in all the fierce 
light that beat upon him throughout the most eventful, trying 
and perilous sixteen years of the nation's history. 

" Never having had a 'policy to enforce against the w r ill of 
the people,' he never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the 
people will never betray or desert him. Vilified and reviled, 
truthlessly aspersed by numberless persons, not in other lands, 
but in his own, the assaults upon him have strengthened and 
seasoned his hold on the public heart. The ammunition of 
calumny has all been exploded, the powder has all been burned 
out, its force has spent and Grant's name will glitter as a bright 
and imperishable star in the diadem of the Republic, when 
those who have tried to tarnish it have mouldered in unfor- 
gotten graves and their memories and epitaphs have vanished 
utterly. Never elated by success, never depressed by adversity, 
he has ever in peace, as in war, shown the very genius of com- 
mon sense. The terms he prescribed for Lee's surrender 
foreshadowed the wisest principles and prophecies of true 
reconstruction." 



i88o. 



565 



When the time for balloting came the strength of the respect- 
ive candidates appeared as follows : 



States. 



Alabama, 

Arkansas, 

California, 

Colorado, 

Connecticut, .... 

Delaware, , 

Florida, 

Georgia, 

Illinois, 

Indiana, 

Iowa, 

Kansas, 

Kentucky, 

Louisiana, 

Maine, 

Maryland, 

Massachusetts, . . . . 

Michigan, 

Minnesota, 

Mississippi, 

Missouri, 

Nebraska, 

Nevada, 

New Hampshire, . . 
New Jersey, .... 

New York, 

North Carolina, . . 

Ohio, 

Oregon, 

Pennsylvania, . . . 
Rhode Island, . . . 
South Carolina, . . . 

Tennessee, 

Texas, 

Vermont, 

Virginia, 

West Virginia, . . . 

Wisconsin, 

Arizona, 

Dakota, 

District of Columbia, 

Idaho, 

Montana, 

New Mexico, . . . 

Utah, 

Washington, . . . . 
Wyoming, 



Totals, 



93 



This strength was maintained with very little variation 
through thirty-four ballots, On the thirty-fifth there came a 



566 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



break in the Blaine columns occasioned by the introduction of 
Garfield's name which secured from the field 50 votes, leaving 
257 for Blaine. Grant's vote rose to 313. On the thirty-sixth 
and final ballot the vote stood Garfield, 399; Grant, 306; Blaine, 




42; Sherman, 3; YVashburne, 5. The bitter struggle of 1880 
ended by a compromise of all the opposition to Grant's candi- 
dacy on Garfield. The compromise proved acceptable to the 
country. By the nomination of Arthur for Vice-President the 
doubtful State of New York was secured to the Republicans 
and Garfield's election assured. Many of the disappointed 



i88o. 567 

leaders and papers continued to depreciate Grant, and his column 
of "306," supporters was placarded with ridicule. He did 
not condescend to meet these flings, but at an important and 
critical hour in the campaign went into it with spirit, and by 
his presence at political meetings in New York State especially, 
which always served to attract great crowds and beget intense 
enthusiasm, he lifted the cloud of doubt from victory and at the 
same time placed his party and the country under a new bur- 
den of obligation for his quiet forbearance amid misrepresen- 
tation, his fresh and timely evidence of unselfishness, and firm 
adhesion to principles which were broader than mere men or 
written platforms. 

From the beginning to the end General Grant comported 
himself with that becoming spirit which had always charac- 
terized his conduct, whether in military or civic station, or in 
the shades of private life. He scorned to misrepresent, and to 
answer detraction. He had no contention himself, was not 
identified personally with the move which bore his name, was 
actuated by no ambition, had no feelings nor resentments, 
entertained no anxiety about results in the convention, was 
willing to lend his presence and the prestige of his name to 
help ratify at the polls the choice of his party. We fail to see 
how he could better have observed all the proprieties of a deli- 
cate situation, how better have conserved the great interests at 
stake, or how added more to a respect already unbounded. 
Looked at as an episode or ordeal which fate had in store for 
him, and judged in the light of a moment long after feelings 
have had time to cool, one cannot propound a line of conduct 
fuller of cautious wisdom, more entirely consistent with his 
whole life, nor more honorable to his memory. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

PERSONAL HISTORY HOME LIFE MEMOIRS REMINISCENCES — 

ANECDOTES. 

IN following General Grant's history we have endeavored 
to illustrate the man. But there are touches that can be 
added which will serve to bring the picture into stronger relief, 
and which were impossible amid the recital of events which 
crowded his active military and political life. 

The magnitude and importance of his deeds united with his 
characteristics, have given him a peculiar fame. Some even 
hesitate to call it fame, so destitute is it of the arts which lend 
brilliancy and win applause. However admirable his per- 
formances, he could never dazzle because of his remarkable 
reticence and utter abhorrence of the tricks of the demagogue. 
He was never his own herald, either on the field, in state or in 
private life. Furthermore, he was ever so generous in crediting 
others with praise, that in many instances the world has heard 
more of his subordinates than of himself. 

The growth of his name was not meteoric. It was slow and 
clouded. It had no career, no friends, to start or back it. It 
had no one, not even himself, to defend or advance it. The 
ambition of others could take advantage of it with impunity. 
Misrepresentation and detraction could deal with it without 
fear of retaliation. He was early the victim of ruthless stories 
about his intemperance. Time alone vindicated him. His 
first military essay at Belmont was persistently reported as a 
failure. He remained silent. As a blow at armed rebellion, 
Donelson was so audacious and staggering, and as a victory it 
5^8 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 569 

was so marvellous and incomprehensible, that people were 
not willing to attribute it to his genius and daring, but rather 
to fate, to accident, to anything that justified their ignorance 
of military situations and gratified their credulity. He modestly 
handed over as a trophy an entire Confederate army, and went 
on silently as before. 

Newspapers turned his victory of Shiloh into a defeat. He 
said: "Wait, time will vindicate me." When suspended at Fort 
Henry, and disgraced by Halleck before Corinth, he said: "My 
conscience approves my acts ; remove me if you think I am 
wrong." When silenced for daring to suggest that Corinth 
could be captured, and that if a prompt move were not made 
the enemy would escape, he quietly rode over the ground after 
the evacuation, and proved by actual observation the correct- 
ness of his theory. All this time there were doubts and dis- 
cussions of his genius and ability. Even when Vicksburg 
electrified the nation, it was others who had furnished the 
brains, others who had led his forces, others who had organized 
and achieved the victory. He claimed nothing for himself, 
but gave all the honor and the glory to his subordinate officers 
and his brave men. He answered no detractions, spoke no 
word of defence, solicited no promotion, sought no praise. 
Such indifference was unnatural, said the world. It was 
stolidity. A man without ambitions could not be a genius. 
Such modesty must be a species of stupidity. Plainness amid 
the panoply of war, silence amid the huzzas of victory, mute- 
ness in the face of personal attack, refusal to reach out and 
pluck the honors that hung ripened for his hand, these were 
so contrary to the popular notion of an epauletted genius 
and born strategist, to titled organizer and high-sounding 
commander of victorious armies, that he who possessed them 
as characteristics must lack all native originality and power, 
must be unfit for responsibility of any kind. 

Vicksburg began to turn the popular scale. It threw light 



570 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

on the mystic problem Grant, by which the people might 
begin their solution. The hush of detraction was sudden. 
Chattanooga followed. Grant at last had merit of his own, 
genius of the highest order, strategic vigor undreamed of, 
action beyond compare. That the most thoughtless could see 
now, and that all were far more ready to confirm than formerly 
to deny. They could read whole chapters of a record now in 
the plain light of events, that had before been enigmas. They 
could understand what they read, see that to which they had 
been blind. Grant had been slowly carving fame without any 
favoring circumstances, had been building greatness in spite 
of enemies, had been proving genius without any friend to 
appreciate. Chance had, after all, nothing to do with the sub- 
lime character that needed but an unveiling to bring it into 
bold and happy relief. It was not accidental, but sterling; not 
a roughly thrown together pile, like the result of some 
upheaval, but a symmetrical monument, the result of close study 
and persistent effort. 

Often trial, sore emergency, had been proving to the country 
the need of a man of certain quality and character. It had 
failed in its generals. Why? it is not for us to say; but it had 
failed. After Chattanooga, the judgment of the nation lifted 
Grant out of all obscurity and doubt, confirmed him in uni- 
versal confidence, loaded him with its gravest responsibilities, 
added the honors which were commensurate with lofty trust. 
None other had ever so fully met the country's ideal. Would 
he maintain the trust, vindicate the judgment, meet the respon- 
sibility, add a personal lustre to the paper honors ? Let Appo- 
mattox be the reply; or, now that he is dead, let the answer 
be a nation's lament over his departure, and a world's respect 
for his memory. 

In personal appearance General Grant was somewhat under 
medium height, with square shoulders, and a compact, well- 
rounded and powerfully built form, His feet and hands were 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 571 

small and well shaped. He dressed with severe plainness, and 
sometimes even carelessly. When in military service his 
clothes were often those of the private soldier, with the addi- 
tion of the stars to designate his rank. His features were 
regular, his forehead broad and square, his head large and 
well-set on a strong muscular neck. His eyes were large, 
light blue, deep set, and of benevolent, expression when in 
repose, but blazing with leonine resolution when in action. 
His fibre was hard, elastic and enduring. In temperament, he 
was a compound, always sanguine, at times nervous, yet both 
so toned and balanced by the lymphatic, as to make his mental 
and physical composure simply wonderful. 

His resistive forces were enormous. Neither physical nor 
mental labor, no matter how protracted or taxing, seemed to 
worry, wear or weaken him, when in his prime. He could ride 
hour after hour, and day after day, at a dashing speed, over all 
kinds of surfaces and in all kinds of weather, without succumbing 
to fatigue. Loss of sleep, irregularity of meals, the excitement 
of great occasions, did not disturb him. He could plan a 
battle, issue a dozen important orders, partake of a biscuit, and 
snatch an hour's rest, with the serenity of a man who had made 
philosophy a life study. No occasion ever made him noisy or 
fussy. His voice was as gentle as a woman's. His words 
were always brief and fitting. In the midst of deep provoca- 
tion he preferred absolute silence to angry retort. In counsel, 
he was a listener. In plan, he was deep, earnest, reticent; in 
execution, unwavering, persistent. There was no rudeness in 
either his word or manner. No oath nor fiery imprecation 
ever escaped his lips. He never thundered an order down the 
lines, never hurt feelings by indignant retort or command, and, 
however much he disapproved of an act, never engaged in ill- 
natured criticism of it. He seldom showed anger, except by 
compressed lips and fiery flashes of the eyes. No amount of 
passion ever changed the measure or tone of his speech, except 



572 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to make it more guarded. But he never angered suddenly. 
He has been heard to say, that even under the severest insult, 
he never became indignant till a week afterward, and then 
only at himself for not having sooner discovered that he had 
been misused. Great capacity for a slow but vehement anger 
was almost entirely subordinate to unconscious self-abnegation 
and entire absence of suspicion. In want of suspicion he was 
like a child. Having no harmful intentions himself, no jealousies, 
he thought everybody like him, till the contrary was proved. 
In this respect, many of the army officers and not a few of the 
leading civilians, mistook him entirely during the earlier periods 
of his career, both military and political. They thought him 
dull, lacking spirit, indecisive, till after they had committed the 
fatal blunder of presuming on those qualities, when they were 
suddenly disillusioned by the discovery that there was an un- 
suspected stonewall of character behind them all. He had no 
charity for insubordination, no patience with inhumanity or 
brutality. Nothing stirred his indignation so deeply and per- 
manently as ingratitude, nor excited a more profound contempt 
and disgust than an unmanly and unbecoming act. 

No man could ever have been more considerate of those 
about him. He passed his orders to his staff officers and his 
subordinates, rather in the manner of a respectful friend than 
with the stern air of a commander. On the night after Mission 
Ridge, he anxiously inquired about Sheridan, who had pushed 
impetuously after the retreating Bragg. No definite word 
could be gotten. With that wonderful care always evinced for 
his subordinates, he sent an officer, under orders to be sure to 
find him and report. The officer did not return till daylight, 
when he found Grant still up and nervously tramping about 
his headquarters. When the General had returned to head- 
quarters from the field, he found there precisely the information 
he wanted from Sheridan, and he could not sleep or rest for 
thinking pf the long, exposed and unnecessary ride he had 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 



573 



imposed on his willing officer, at midnight. Such solicitude 
was rare among other generals. 

In his personal habits and tastes Grant was the quintescence 
of simplicity. He despised pomp, and the mockery of parade, 
when it became personal. He endured it only when it typed 
something outside of himself — a cause, an occasion, born of 




GRANT'S NEW YORK RESIDENCE. 



the people, but of which circumstances made him an humble 
part or exemplar. His army mess was the plain, but bountiful, 
rations which could be transported readily. In his private life, 
there was no ostentation nor extravagance. This was so in the 
White House and in his Sixty-sixth street home in New York. 



574 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

There were substantial decorations and a generous supply of 
useful articles, but nothing beyond the requirements of a plain, 
practical taste. He never had dainty or costly appetites to 
appease, kept no wine cellar, and during his campaigns the use 
of liquors was interdicted to his staff officers in camp life. He 
smoked excessively, till his disease forbade, and this was his 
most expensive and habitual luxury. 

Grant's modesty has always been proverbial. But even this 
has been misunderstood. It was not the modesty of shrinking 
and cowardice — not that which springs from lack of firmness 
and destroys all individuality. It may have cut him off from 
many an opportunity for display; may have prevented many a 
speech which would have been apt and happy; but it never 
destroyed the solidity of the man when the moment of action 
was on and, as to speech, it forced a maturity of thoughts 
before they were divulged, which gave his sentences the beauty 
of brevity, the elegance of strength, and the felicity of striking 
aptitude. His taciturnity readily vanished where all was con- 
genial and no care weighed upon him. Amid companionable 
people, around the camp fire, in the home circle, he talked 
readily on all subjects; talked easily, fluently, pleasingly, in- 
telligently. His memory was very tenacious, and his mind 
well stored with the facts of wide observation. He was not 
stuffed with bookish lore, but he knew things and men for 
what they were worth. He read newspapers closely, was in- 
terested in all questions of humanity, and knew thoroughly the 
nature »of our institutions and the characters of leading men at 
home and abroad. Both in war and in peace he shaped some 
of our broadest, wisest and most enduring policies, and his 
state papers, his recommendations, were clear, concise and 
convincing. He got at bottom facts in politics and in public 
measures, and his judgments were always honest, even if they 
were not always popular. The spirit of bias and unfairness 
was not in him ; and this, as to public measures, unfitted him 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 575 

somewhat for that shrewder statesmanship which we are pleased 
to call diplomacy, while as to public men it left him too un- 
suspecting. His confidence was simple and strong — too simple 
and too strong for him always to escape entanglement at the 
hands of the designing, or undeserved and unanswered censure 
at the hands of the vicious. Yet with all this, his appreciation 
of men, especially of military lieutenants, has never been sur- 
passed. In that field he made no mistakes. His Shermans, 
Sheridans, Thomases, Hancocks, Wrights, McPhersons, and 
others of equal bravery and fidelity, were men after his own 
heart in action, and never failed him, as he never failed them. 

Without fulsomeness, with a horror of loudness and Hec- 
toring, he yet warmed toward a bold, outspoken and loyal 
nature. He was full of unostentatious ardor and zeal, and he 
naturally admired those qualities in others. He loved heroic 
frankness, but despised a weak, complaining, narrow and selfish 
disposition and could not endure indirectness and double-deal- 
ing. Indeed, no peculiarity of his nature, whether as a soldier, 
a statesman or man, was so striking as his undeviating truth- 
fulness in all things. Falsehood was not in him, nor even 
misrepresentation of fact for any purpose. His sole idea of 
expediency was truth and justice, these at whatever cost. 

To his wonderful fidelity in friendships he united a marvel- 
ous magnanimity toward enemies. His liberality and charity 
were as broad as humanity. Without vanities or ambitions to 
gratify, promotion never turned his head or colored his char- 
acter. A thorough believer in the necessity for timaly and 
laborious action, in the doctrine that effect can only be com- 
mensurate with cause, he was nevertheless inspired with a 
beautiful and touching faith in an overruling Providence, and 
the concrete thought never failed him that the higher sentiment, 
the reserve force, the final intelligence and resource, the supreme 
righteousness, of the Union cause must in the end prevail. 
The manifest destiny of the Republic was a creed for him. 



5J6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

His religious sentiments and emotions were respectful and fer- 
vent, and his inclinations toward the Methodist Episcopal faith 
and practice. He worshiped with that persuasion, for the most 
part, in Washington and New York. There was a simple grandeur 
in the completeness of his faith in God, and of his hope for the 
future, which remained the same at all hours, whether battle 
threatened sudden death, or disease made its slow and painful 
approaches. His fortitude in every conflict, and especially in that 
last which compelled physical surrender, was as unshaken as a 
martyr's, and his resignation made his passing away a euthanasia. 

Perhaps no man of public station and active, long-continued 
prominence, ever lived a happier and purer home life. He was 
a faithful, devoted, exemplary husband and father. When his 
child was sick at St. Louis, he laid aside the cares of Chatta- 
nooga for a few days to visit it. Amid all the anxieties and 
excitements that followed the surrender of Lee, he did not 
forget his wife and children, but hastened to see them at Bur- 
lington, though only for an hour, being recalled by the assassina- 
tion of Lincoln. His home, his family, were always his first 
consideration. He was blessed with a wife who was loving, 
kind and ever faithful in her ministrations. That she possessed 
the high sense of honor, and not a little of the heroism, of her 
husband is evinced by her refusal to accept of Mr. Vanderbilt 
the proffer of all the claims he held against the general. Even 
at an hour when financial ruin stared them in the face she 
would not change the result by an attempt to save a remnant, 
though made attractive and excusable in the sweet name of 
charity. Her tastes suited his. She was a strong, cheerful, 
sustaining companion, who understood him, and who showed 
her womanly qualities throughout his entire career by frequent 
visits to him on the battle-field, by presiding dignifiedly in the 
White House, by honoring his tour with her presence, but 
never more affectionately, tenderly and constantly than during 
those long months of disease and wasting which preceded 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 



S77 



his death. Her hand was then that of an administering 
angel and her presence a perpetual solace. Two such com- 
panionable, perfectly matched, home-loving, and mutually 
loving people, could not help honoring the marital estate 




COL. FREDERICK D. GRANT. 

and presenting a worthy picture of social and domestic life. 

And General Grant was as happy in his paternal relations. 
He was an excellent father, and reared a family of four children, 
all of whom were passionately attached to him. They were 
37 



578 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



all liberally educated. His eldest son, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Frederick D. Grant, born in St. Louis in 1849, graduated at 
West Point in 1871. He served as Second Lieutenant in the 
Fourth Cavalry, at Fort Griffin, Texas, from December, 1872, 




to Februaiy, 1873. In March, 1873, he was made Aid-de-Camp 
to General Sheridan, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He 
served in the Yellowstone expedition, in 1873, and in the Black 



PERSONAL HISTORY. 



579 



Hill's expedition, in 1874, and subsequently went into the 
banking business in Washington, where he married Miss 
Honore, October 20th, 1874. 

The second son, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., was born at Bethel, 




MRS. NELLIE SARTORIS. 



Ohio, in 1850. He studied law at Columbia College Law 
School, and began practice in New York, but soon abandoned 
it for commercial pursuits. He married a daughter of ex- 
Senator Chaffee, of Colorado, in October, 1881. 



580 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



His only daughter, Nellie, was born in August i855 > 
near St. Louis. She was married in the east room of the 
White House, May 2ist, 1874, to Algernon Sartoris, of 
England. She has resided abroad since, but came at an 




JESSE R. GRANT. 



early day to her sick father's side, and remained with him till 
the end. 

The youngest of the family is Jesse R. Grant, born on Judge 
Dent's farm near St. Louis, in 1858. He studied in the Colum- 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 58 1 

bia School of Mines, and accompanied his father on his tour 
around the world. He married Miss Chapman of San Fran- 
cisco, September 21st, 1881. 

No man of this country or this age will be so studied as 
General Grant. Every analysis of the man will be heightened 
and impressed by the imposing results which are yet to follow 
his achievements. In making himself, in performing his many 
and brilliant deeds, he not only wrote history for the time being, 
but set going fresh historic facts and forces whose gathering, 
as the ages progress, will bring him into prouder relief. The 
drama of his time cannot be perfectly written till an unimpas- 
sioned master arise. Then Grant will find his place as its 
central figure and true hero, and if we mistake not the lustre 
of his martial wreathe will blend harmoniously with that of 
his civic purple. 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 

When circumstances favored, General Grant could not only 
throw off all reticence, but become a really brilliant and original 
conversationalist. The charm of his talk was that it was never 
about anything he did not know ; and what he did know, he 
knew well. Even in matters which are familiar and well fixed, 
he would sometimes startle one by new information or a train 
of opinions quite striking in their originality and vigor. His 
tour around the world gave frequent opportunity for discourse 
with his companions, all of whom were agreeable and some- 
what in the nature of confidants. It was his wont to relieve 
the monotony of long trips, especially ocean voyages, by 
touching on men and events at home and in various parts of 
the world. These conversations show that he must have been 
a delightful traveling companion. They serve, also, to illus- 
trate his style of speech and his habits of close thought. It 
maybe they are not unworthy of record as historic memoranda, 



582 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

though not at all studied, and some of them subject to the 
modifications which he would naturally have made if called 
upon to write them down and father them with his signature. 
We give a few of these conversations, or rather speeches, 
as found in Mr. Young's account of the trip around the 
world. 

EXPEDIENCY IN POLITICS.—" I hear," said the Gen- 
eral, " a good deal about expediency in politics. The only 
time I ever deliberately resolved to do an expedient thing for 
party reasons, against my own judgment, was on the occasion 
of the passage of the expansion or inflation bill. It would 
destroy the Republican party in the West, I was told. And 
then the West and the South would combine and agree upon 
some worse plan of finance ; some plan that would mean re- 
pudiation. I thought, at last, I would try and save the party, 
and at the same time the credit of the nation, from the evils of 
the bill. I resolved to write a message, embodying my ow.j 
reasoning and all the arguments that had been given me, to 
show that the bill, as passed, did not mean expansion or infla- 
tion, and that it need not affect the country's credit. The 
message was intended to soothe the East and satisfy the foreign 
holders of our bonds. I wrote the message with great care, 
and put in every argument I could to show that the bill was 
harmless and would not accomplish what its friends expected 
from it. When I finished my wonderful message that was to 
do the party and country so much good, I said to myself, 'what 
is the good of all this ? You do not believe it. You know it 
is not true.' Throwing it aside I resolved to do what I believed 
to be right — veto the bill. I could not stand my own argu- 
ments. It was an anxious time with me. On the ninth day I 
was immovable, and gave orders that I would see no one till I 
had my veto message prepared. When Cabinet met, my mes- 
sage was ready. I did not intend asking its advice, as I knew 
a majority would oppose it. I never allowed my Cabinet to 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 583 

interfere when my mind was made up, and on this question it 
was inflexibly made up. I read my first message, the one in 
which I had tried to make myself and everybody else believe 
what I knew was not true. Then I read my veto message, 
saying I had made up my mind to sign it. This prevented 
debate. So I signed it. To my surprise I received no warmer 
commendations than from the West. All the results of that 
veto, which I awaited with apprehension, were of the most 
salutary character. It was the encouragement which it gave 
to the friends of honest money in the West, that revived and 
strengthened them there." 

SHILOH. — "I have every reason to be satisfied with the 
battle of Shiloh. In its results it was one of our greatest 
victories. To it we owe the spirit of confidence that pervaded 
the Western army. So far were we from being surprised, 
that one night — certainly two nights before the battle — firing 
was heard in front, and it was reported that my army was 
making a night attack. I rode out, and found all quiet. 
Sherman was thoroughly ready to receive attack when it 
came, and nothing could be finer than his conduct." 

THE SILVER BILL.— " When the silver bill passed, I 
suggested to General Sherman that he write to his brother, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, the plan of paying Congressmen in 
silver. They could not have carried their pay away except in 
wheelbarrows. As they passed the bill, it was proper that they 
should enjoy its fruits. It would have made the whole thing 
ridiculous. The men who voted for the silver bill, like the old 
Know Nothing leaders, will spend the remainder of their lives 
in explaining their course." 

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.— -"The question of public 
improvements is one that must attract the attention of our 
statesmen. I have been very much impressed with what France 
is doing now. You see the republic has voted one thousand 
millions of dollars, as much as the German indemnity, to build 



584 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

railroads, improve harbors, and so on. In America the mistakes 
we made in the building of the Pacific railway has deterred our 
people from going any further. If that road had been built by 
our own engineers, with the system of accountability that exists 
in the army, millions would have been saved. But because we 
made a mistake then, we should not oppose all plans for 
developing the country. I gave much thought, when I was 
President, to the subject of a canal across Central America — 
a ship canal connecting the two oceans. But, somehow, I had 
not influence enough with the administration to make it an 
administration measure. I did all I could to pave the way for 
it. As a young officer I crossed the continent on the Nicara- 
gua route, and I have no doubt that it is the true one. The 
route through Columbia is expensive and difficult on account 
of the rocks and streams. The Panama route would be diffi- 
cult and expensive. On the Tehuantepec route the water would 
have to be raised so high by a system of locks, that it could 
not pay. Nature seems to have made the route through Nica- 
ragua. After Mr. Hayes came in, I called on Mr. Evarts and 
spent an hour with him in going over the whole subject. I 
urged on him the value of the work. I suppose, however, 
Mr. Hayes finds the same difficulty in interesting the people 
that I encountered. But it will come ; it must. If we do not 
do it, our children will. The governments of Costa Rica and 
Nicaragua are favorable. They would be the gainers. Our 
capital, enterprise and industry would go in and make a garden 
on the banks of the canal from sea to sea. It would divert the 
tea trade from China. In the carrying of wheat alone enough 
would be saved to pay the interest on the $80,000,000 necessary 
to build the canal. It would aid in solving the Chinese pro- 
blem. California would find a place for the Chinese laborers 
who are now worrying her. My opinion is it would add largely 
to the wealth of the Pacific coast, and perhaps change the 
current of the whole trade of the world." 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 585 

THE EASTERN QUESTION.—" The more I have looked 
into the Eastern question since abroad, the more I believe the 
Russian side is the true one. I wanted to be in accord with 
men who had shown me as much kindness as Lord Beacons- 
field and his colleagues; but it was impossible. England's 
policy in the East is hard, reactionary and selfish. No man 
can visit those wonderful lands on the Mediterranean without 
seeing what they might be under a good government. I do 
not care under which flag the government flourished — English, 
French, Italian or Russian — its influence would be felt at once 
in the increased happiness of the people, toleration of all reli- 
gions, and great prosperity. Take the country, for instance, 
from Joppa to Jerusalem — the plain of Sharon and the hills 
and valleys beyond. What a garden the French would make 
of that! Think what a wheat crop could be raised there within 
easy sail of the best markets ! As I understand the Eastern 
Question, the great obstacle to the good government of these 
countries is England. Unless she can control them herself 
she will allow no one else. That I call a selfish policy. I 
cannot see the humanity of keeping those countries under a 
barbarous rule, merely because there are apprehensions about 
the road to India. If England went in and took them her- 
self I should be satisfied ; but, if she will not, why keep other 
nations out ? It seems to me that the Eastern question could 
be settled easily enough if the civilizing powers of Europe 
were to sink their differences and take hold. Russia seems to 
be the only power that means to settle it, and it is a mistake 
of England that she has not been allowed to do so with the 
general sympathy of the world." 

NOTABLE MEN—" Of the notable men I have met in 
Europe, I regard Bismarck and Gambetta as the greatest. 
Bismarck impresses you as a great man. Gambetta also 
impressed me greatly. I was not surprised, when I met him, 
to see the immense power he wields in France. I was very 



586 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

much pleased with the Republican leaders in France. They 
seemed a superior body of men. My relations with them 
gave me great hope of the future of the republic. They are 
men, apparently, of sense, wisdom, and moderation." 

THE MEXICAN QUESTION.— "When our war ended, 
I urged on Johnson an immediate invasion of Mexico. You 
see, Napoleon, in Mexico, was really a part, and an active 
part, of the rebellion. His army was as much opposed to us 
as that of Kirby Smith. Even apart from his desire to estab- 
lish a monarchy, and overthrow a friendly republic, against 
which every loyal American revolted, there was the active 
co-operation between the French and the Confederates on the 
Rio Grande, which made it an act of war. I believed then, as 
I do now, that we had just cause of war with Maximilian, and 
with Napoleon, if he supported him, — with Napoleon, espe- 
cially, as he was the head of the whole business. We were 
so placed that we were bound to fight him. I sent Sheridan 
off to the Rio Grande. I sent him post haste, not giving him 
time to participate in the grand review. My plan was to give 
him a corps, have him cross the Rio Grande, join Juarez, and 
attack Maximilian. With his corps he could have walked 
over Mexico. Johnson favored, but Seward opposed, and his 
opposition was decisive. Suppose it did mean war with 
France ? With the army we had on both sides at the close of 
the war, what did we care for Napoleon ? Unless Napoleon 
surrendered his Mexican provinces, I was fighting for Napo- 
leon. There never was a more just cause for war than what 
Napoleon gave us. With our army, we could do as we 
pleased. We had a victorious army and the whole South to 
recruit from. I had that in my mind when I proposed the 
advance on Mexico. I wanted to employ and occupy the 
Southern army. I am not sure I was right, but I believe it 
would have been safe. It would have been an outlet for the 
disappointed and dangerous elements in the South — elements 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 587 

brave and warlike, and energetic enough with their qualities 
of the Anglo-Saxon character, but irreconcilable in their hos- 
tility to the Union. I tried to make Lee think so when he 
surrendered. They would have become settlers in Mexico, 
and, perhaps, done as great a work as had been done in Cali- 
fornia. No one dreaded war more than I did. I had had 
more than I wanted. But the war would have been national, 
and we could have united both sections under one flag. The 
results must have more than compensated for another war, 
and even if it had come, it must have been, under Sheridan 
and his army, short, quick, decisive, and assuredly triumph- 
ant. We could have marched from the Rio Grande to Mexico 
without a serious battle. Then, if we had gone into Mexico, 
we could have saved Maximilian's life. We should never 
have consented to that unfortunate and unnecessary execution. 
I don't think France could have rallied for a war against us 
and in defence of slavery. She could not rally against 
Prussia. Napoleon's empire, never strong, would have had 
such a shock that it would, in all probability, have fallen, as it 
fell five years later, and France would now be a republic — 
minus Sedan. Mr. Seward's objections to my plan cost Maxi- 
milian his life and gave Napoleon five years more of power. 
Still, Mr. Seward may have been right. War is such a terrible 
thing that I can think of nothing short of national honor that 
can justify it." 

NAPOLEONISM. — "I have always had an aversion to 
Napoleon and the whole family. When I was in Denmark 
the Prince Imperial was there, and some one thought it might 
be pleasant for me to see him. I declined, saying I did not 
want to see him nor any of his family. Of course the first 
emperor was a great genius and one of the most selfish and 
cruel men in history. Outside of his military skill I do not 
see a redeeming trait in his character. He abused France for 
his own ends and brought incredible disaster on his country 



588 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

to gratify his own ambitions. I do not think that any genius 
can excuse a crime like that. The third Napoleon was worse 
than the first, the special enemy of American liberty. Think 
of the misery he brought on France by a war no one but a 
madman would have declared. I never doubted how the war 
would end and my sympathies from the outset were with Ger- 
many. I had no ill-will to the French people but to Napoleon. 
Had peace come after Sedan it would have appeared that the 
war was not against the French people but against the tyrant 
and his dynasty. The condition of Europe would now be 
different." 

ENGLISH INTERVENTION.— -"I never shared the ap- 
prehension felt about the recognition of the Southern Confed- 
eracy by England. Suppose it had been recognized ? It 
would not have interfered with Canby, or Meade, or Sherman, 
who would have kept on marching. I am sure I would not 
have drawn away from Richmond. It would not have inter- 
fered with our money supplies, as we were buying our own 
loans. It would not have interfered with our supplies of men 
as not more than three per cent, of our army was, in the be- 
ginning, composed of unnaturalized citizens. The difference 
would have been with England. We could have resisted a 
war with England. She would have had to withdraw from the 
American Continent Canada would have become ours. If 
Sheridan, for instance, with our resources could not have taken 
Canada in thirty days, he should have been cashiered. I don't 
mean this as a reflection. The Canadians are as good a people 
as ever lived, but the facts would have been against them. 
We could have thrown half a million of men inured to war 
into their country and covered it like a wave. The strategic 
and defensive points of Canada are all within our lines. There 
is no English soldier who would risk his reputation by at- 
tempting to defend such lines against the United States. 
England might have bombarded the Atlantic cities. It does 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 589 

not do a town much harm to bombard it, as I found out at 
Vicksburg. Even if she had occupied the cities she would 
have had to feed the people, which would have been very 
expensive. If she had laid them under contribution the nation 
would have had to pay the bill and she would have lost ten 
dollars for every one she exacted. She might have block- 
aded our coasts. I can think of nothing that would do 
America more good than a year or two of effective blockade. 
It would create new industries, throw us back upon ourselves, 
develop our own resources. It would keep our people at home. 
Hundreds, if not thousands, of privateers would have preyed 
on English commerce, as English-built ships preyed on ours. 
The war would have left her carrying trade where ours was 
left. English blockade of our ports would only cut off her 
own supply of food. America really depends on the world 
for nothing. England might have sent troops to help the 
South, but she would have had to send more than she sent to 
the Crimea to make herself felt. Her soldiers would not 
have been as good as Lee's, because they would have lacked 
training. Then the moment England would have struck us 
other nations would have struck her. I am especially glad, 
for England's sake, that . she did not intervene. War with 
England is not desirable. Her American possessions, which 
she would surely lose, are not worth a regiment of men. I 
mean they are as much ours now as if we had conquered them. 
They are carrying out American ideas in religion, education and 
civilization, just as we are. The men who governed England 
were wise in not taking part in our war. It would have been 
more trouble to us but destruction to them. We could not 
have avoided war, and our war would have begun with more 
than half a million soldiers in the field, and that would have 
been a match for any opposing army that could have been 
assembled on the American Continent." 

STONEWALL JACKSON.— ■"! knew Stonewall Jackson 



59° LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

at West Point and in Mexico. He came into the school at an 
older age than the average, and began with a low grade. But 
he had so much courage and energy, worked so hard, and 
governed his life by a discipline so stern that he steadily 
worked his way along and rose far above others who had more 
advantages. He was a religious man then, and some of us 
regarded him as a fanatic. Sometimes his religion took 
strange forms — hypochondria — fancy that an evil spirit had 
taken possession of him. But he never knew a relapse in his 
studies or his Christian duties. I knew him in Mexico. He 
was always a brave and trustworthy officer, none more so in 
the army. I never knew him or encountered him in the rebel- 
lion. I question whether his campaigns in Virginia justify his 
reputation as a great commander. He was killed too soon, and 
before his rank allowed him a great command. It would have 
been a test of generalship if Jackson had met Sheridan in the 
valley, instead of some of the men he did meet. If Jackson 
had attempted on Sheridan the tactics he attempted so suc- 
cessfully upon others he would not only have been beaten but 
destroyed. Sudden daring raids, under a fine general like 
Jackson, might do against raw troops and inexperienced com- 
manders, such as we had in the beginning of the war, but not 
against drilled troops and a commander like Sheridan. The 
tactics for which Jackson is famous, and which achieved such 
remarkable results, belonged entirely to the beginning of the 
war and to the peculiar conditions under which the earlier 
battles were fought. They would have insured destruction to 
any commander who tried them upon Sherman, Thomas, 
Sheridan, Meade, or, in fact, any of our great generals. Con- 
sequently Jackson's fame as a general depends upon achieve- 
ments gained before his generalship was tested, before he had 
a chance of matching himself with a really great commander. 
No doubt so able and patient a man as Jackson, who worked 
so hard at anything he attempted would have adapted himself 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 59 1 

to new conditions and risen with them. He died before his 
opportunity. I always respected Jackson personally, and es- 
teemed his sincere and manly character. He impressed me 
always as a man of the Cromwell stamp, a Puritan — much 
more of the New Englander than the Virginian. If any man 
believed in the rebellion he did. And his nature was such 
that whatever he believed in became a religious duty, a duty 
he would discharge at any cost. It is a mistake to suppose 
that I ever had any feeling for Stonewall Jackson but respect. 
Personally we were always good friends; his character had 
rare points of merit, and although he made the mistake of 
fighting against his country, if ever a man did so conscien- 
tiously he was the man." 

ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSON.— "I knew Albert Sidney 
Johnson before the war. When he was sent to Utah I had a 
high opinion of his talents. When the war broke out he was 
regarded as the coming man of the Confederacy. I shared 
that opinion, because I knew and esteemed him, and because 
I felt, as we all did, in the old army, where there was a public 
opinion among the officers as to who would come out ahead. 
In many cases, in most cases, our public opinion was in error. 
Bragg had a great reputation in the South. Bragg was the 
most contentious of men, and there was a story in Mexico 
that he put every one in arrest under him, and then put him- 
self in arrest. Albert Sidney Johnson might have risen in 
fame, and we all had confidence in his doing so ; but he died 
too soon — as Stonewall Jackson died too soon — for us to say 
what he would have done under the later and altered con- 
ditions of the war." 

JOE JOHNSTON— ■" The southern army had many good 
generals. Lee, of course, was a good soldier, and so was 
Longstreet. I knew Longstreet in Mexico. He was a fine 
fellow, and one of the best of the young officers. I do not 
know that there was any better than Joe Johnston. I have 



592 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

had nearly all of the Southern generals in high command in 
front of me, and Joe Johnston gave me more anxiety than any 
of the others. I was never half so anxious about Lee. By 
the way, I saw in Joe Johnston's book that when I was asking 
Pemberton to surrender Vicksburg, he was on his way to raise 
the siege. I was very sorry. If I had known Johnston was 
coming, I would have told Pemberton to wait in Vicksburg 
until I wanted him, awaited Johnston's advance, and given him 
battle. He could never have beaten that Vicksburg army, 
and thus I would have destroyed two armies perhaps. Pem- 
berton's was already gone, and I was quite sure of Johnston's. 
I was sorry I did not know Johnston was coming until too 
late. Take it all in all the South, in my opinion, had no better 
soldier than Joe Johnston — none at least that gave me more 
trouble." 

TRYING TO MEET McCLELLAN.—" McClellan had 
been appointed major-general in the regular army and was in 
command in Cincinnati. I was delighted with the appoint- 
ment. I knew him and had great confidence in him. I have 
never lost my respect for his character nor my confidence in 
his loyalty and ability. I saw in him the man who was to 
pilot us through, and I wanted to be on his staff. So I went 
to Cincinnati and to his headquarters. I knew several of his 
staff and asked if he was in. He was not in. I waited for a 
couple of hours. I never saw so many men at army head- 
quarters with quills behind their ears. After a long wait I 
told an officer I would come again next day. Next day it was 
the same story. The general had just gone out — might be in 
at any moment. I waited again for two hours. He never 
acknowledged my call, though notified of it. This is the 
whole story. I went over to see an old army friend and- was 
notified that Gov. Yates had made me a colonel of volunteers. 
Still I should like to have joined McClellan. This pomp and 
ceremony was common at the beginning of the war. McClel- 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 593 

Ian had three times as many men with quills behind their ears 
as I ever found necessary at the headquarters of a much 
larger command. Fremont was as imposing in his way of 
doing business. Halleck had the same fondness for mystery, 
but was in addition a very able man." 

HALLECK.— -" Halleck had intellect and great acquirement 
outside of his military education. His appointment to the 
major-generalcy was a great gratification to all who knew him 
in the old army. When I was made lieutenant-general 
Halleck became chief-of-staff of the army. He was very 
useful, loyal, and industrious, and sincerely anxious for the 
success of the country, without any feeling of soreness at 
being superseded. His immense knowledge of military 
science was of great use in the War Office to those of us who 
were in the field. His fault — and this prevented his being a 
great field commander— was timidity in taking responsibilities. 
I do not mean personal timidity, because no one ever doubted 
his courage, but timidity in reaching conclusions. He would 
never take a chance in battle. A general who will never take 
a chance in battle will never fight one. When in the field, I 
had to come to Washington two or three times to see that he 
carried out my orders. There was some panic about the 
rebels coming between our army and Washington, and he had 
changed my orders. I had to say, 'I don't care anything 
about that. I don't care if they do get between my troops 
and the Capital, so that they get into a place where I can find 
them.' " 

McCLELLAN. — "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries 
of the war. He had a way of inspiring you with an idea of 
immense capacity, if he only got a chance. Then, he is 
a man of unusual accomplishments, a student, and a well-read 
man. I have never studied his campaigns enough to make up. 
my mind as to his military skill, but all my impressions are in 
his favor. I have entire confidence in his loyalty and patriot 
38 



594 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ism. But the test which was applied to him would be terrible 
to any man, being made a major-general at the beginning of 
the war. He was young, and the conditions of success were 
trying. If he had gone into the war as Sherman, Thomas, or 
Meade, had fought his way along up, I have no reason to 
suppose he would not have won as high a distinction as 
any of us. His main blunder was in allowing himself 
political sympathies, and in permitting himself to become the 
critic of the President, and, in time, his rival. This is shown 
in his letter to Mr. Lincoln on his return to Harrison's Land- 
ing, when he sat down and wrote out a policy for the Govern- 
ment. He was forced into this by his associations, and that 
led to his nomination for the Presidency. I remember how 
disappointed I was about this letter, and also his failure to 
destroy Lee at Antietam. His friends say that he failed 
because of the interference from Washington. I am afraid the 
interference was not from Mr. Lincoln so much as from the 
enemies of the Administration, who believed they could carry 
their point through the Army of the Potomac. My own 
experience with Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, both in the 
Western and Eastern armies, was the reverse. I was never 
interfered with. I had the fullest support of the President and 
Secretary of War. No general could want better backing, 
for the President was a man of great wisdom and moderation, 
his secretary a man of enormous character and will. Very 
often when Lincoln would want to say yes his secretary would 
make him say no; and, more frequently, when the secretary 
was driving on in a violent course, the President would check 
him. United, Lincoln and Stanton made about as perfect a 
combination as I believe could by any possibility govern a 
great nation in time of war." 

E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.— -"The first time I 
saw Mr. Stanton was in the West. He met me at Indian- 
apolis, and we rode to Louisville together. He gave me my 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 595 

new command, to take the army and relieve Rosecrans. Being 
fatigued, he went to bed, and I went to the theatre. On my 
way back I was hailed and told that something terrible had 
happened. I hastened to Stanton's room, and found him in 
his night garments, in great distress. He had received 
dispatches from the Assistant Secretary of War to the effect 
that Rosecrans had ordered his army to retreat from Chatta- 
nooga, and that such retreat would be disastrous not only to 
the army, but to the Union. I saw the situation at once, and 
wrote several dispatches. My first was to Rosecrans, reliev- 
ing him of his command. My second was to Thomas, direct- 
ing him to take command of the army until I reached head- 
quarters, and to hold his position at all hazards. His reply 
came that he would hold his position until his whole army 
starved. I hurried down to the front, and, on my way, at one 
of the stations, met Rosecrans. He was cheerful, and showed 
no feeling. He was fluent in telling me what I should do. I 
found the army in a sad condition. The men were badly fed 
and clothed, and had no communication for supplies. Cattle 
had to be driven a long way over the mountain, and were so 
thin when they arrived that the men called them ' beef dried 
on the hoof I opened communications with our supplies, or, 
as the men called it, 'the cracker lines.' Rosecrans' plan, 
which was checked before put in execution, by my order, 
would have been most disastrous. Nothing could have been 
more fatal. He would have lost his guns and his trains, and 
Bragg would have taken Nashville. By opening our lines, 
feeding our men, and giving them good clothing, our army was 
put in good condition. Then, when Sherman reached me, 
I attacked Bragg, and out of that came Missionary Ridge. 

" Stanton was a man whose temper had been tried by severe 
labor and his love for the Union was volcanic in its fierce- 
ness. It tried his patience beyond that of any other man 
to see all the results of the war deliberately laid at the 



596 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

feet of the South by Johnson. If people would only remem- 
ber the privations under which Stanton acted they would do 
him more justice. I confess I would not like to have been in 
Johnson's place. Stanton required a man like Lincoln to 
manage him. I should not like to have had that responsibility. 
At the same time he was one of the great men of the Republic. 
He was as much a martyr to the Union as Sedgwick or 
McPherson. I held him in great personal esteem and his 
character in high honor." 

MEN IN PUBLIC LIFE.—" It would be very hard for me 
to say that I knew six men in public life who were dishonest. 
Men who are senators and members will do things that re- 
formers call corrupt. They will ask for patronage and govern 
themselves in their dealings with the administration by their 
success in the matter of patronage. This is custom, and if 
the theory of the reformers is right, it is corruption. And yet 
the men who are reformers, I generally found as anxious for 
patronage as others. Mr. Sumner, who is the idol of reformers, 
was among the first senators to ask offices for his friends. He 
expected offices as a right ; of course he spoke as a senator; of 
course, Mr. Sumner was perfectly honest, and so were other 
senators. They regarded executive appointments for friends 
as the rewards of public life. This you cannot call corruption, 
so much as a condition of our representative form of government. 
My experience of men, makes me very charitable in my criti- 
cism of public officers. As a rule, our government is honestly 
and economically managed. Our civil service is as good as 
any I have seen, and the men in office, as a rule, do the best 
for the country and the government." 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.— "K President is, for the time 
being, naturally in favor of civil service reform. Patronage is 
the bane of the Presidential office. A large share of the vexations 
and cares of the Executive come from patronage. He is 
necessarily a civil service reformer, because he wants peace of 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 597 

mind. Apart from this, I was anxious to have civil service'reform 
broad enough to include all its most earnest friends desired. 
I gave it an honest and fair trial, though Geo. W. Curtis thinks 
I did not. One reason for his opinion may be that he does not 
know as much about the facts as I do. There is a good deal 
of cant about civil service reform, which throws doubt on the 
sincerity of the government. Its advocates give the impres- 
sion that most executive appointments are made out of the 
penitentiary ; of course no reform can be sound that is sustained 
only by wild declarations. Then many of those who talk civil 
service reform in public, are the most persistent seekers after 
offices for their friends. Civil service reform rests entirely with 
Congress. If members and senators will give up claiming pa- 
tronage, a step will be gained. But there is an immense amount 
of human nature in members of Congress, and it is in human 
nature to seek power and use it to help friends. The Execu- 
tive must consider Congress. A government machine must 
run, and an Executive depends on Congress, whose members 
have rights as well as himself. The advice of congressmen as 
to persons to be appointed is useful and generally is for the 
best." 

GO VERNING. — " Twenty years of republican rule assures 
a civil service reform. They have built up a body of experi- 
enced servants in all departments. The only break was 
when Mr. Johnson was at enmity with his party, and filled 
many offices with incompetent men. I suffered from that. 
Most of my early appointments, were to weed out bad appoint- 
ments by Johnson. Mr. Hayes has had no such trouble. I 
made some removals in the beginning that I should not have 
done. But as I came to know the politicians, this ceased. I 
was always resisting this pressure from Congress, and in many 
cases, nothing but my determined resistance saved good men. 
Mr. Lincoln was always glad to recognize loyal democrats, and 
in all the departments, such were sure to remain. I never re- 



59$ LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

moved men because they were democrats, if they were otherwise 
fit. This shows that civil service is growing in America, in the 
only way it can grow naturally, through the long continuance of 
one party in power and the consequent education of an expe- 
rienced class of public servants." 

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION.— ■" Nothing could 
have been wiser than the Electoral Commission, and nothing 
more unpatriotic than attempts to impair Mr. Hayes' title. He 
is just as much President as any of his predecessors. The 
country cannot too highly honor the men who devised and 
Carried that Commission through. The crisis was a serious 
one, and for me, one of peculiar annoyance. History will jus- 
tify the Electoral Commission as a fine bit of self-government 
on the part of the people, and those brave enough to rise above 
party. I say this without regard to its decision. I would have 
thought the same if Tilden had been elected. I had no fears of 
an outbreak, but received so manyVarnings, that I made all 
preparations. I knew all about the rifle clubs, and was prepared 
for any contingency. Any outbreak would have been suddenly 
and summarily stopped. I did not intend to have two govern- 
ments, nor any South American pronunciamentos. If Tilden 
was declared elected, I intended to hand him over the reins 
and see him peacefully installed. I should have treated him as 
cordially as I did Hayes, for the question of the Presidency 
was neither personal nor political, but national. I tried to act 
with the utmost impartiality between the two, and would not 
have raised my finger to put Hayes in, if in doing so I did Mr. 
Tilden the slightest injustice. All I wanted was for the legal 
powers to declare a President, to keep the machine running, to 
allay the passions of the canvass, and allow the country peace. 
I am profoundly grateful that the matter ended as it did, with- 
out devolving on me any new responsibilities. The day that 
brought the result, and enabled me to leave the White House 
as I did, I regard as the happiest of my life. I felt as if I had 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 599 

been vouchsafed a personal deliverance. At the same time we 
should amend our electoral laws and prevent the renewal of 
such a crisis. What is to be avoided, is not so much re-elec- 
tions as frequent elections. But the plan that would go fur- 
thest to satisfy all opinions, would be one term for six or seven 
years, and ineligibility to re-election." 

HORACE GREELEY.— u \ never knew Greeley well, 
but had great respect for his character. I was raised in an old 
line Whig family, and all my earliest predilections were for 
Greeley and his principles. I tried very hard to be friendly with 
him, but somehow we never became cordial. He had strange 
notions about the kind of men who should take office. He 
believed that when a man was a helpless creature, a burden to 
his friends, and drifting between the poorhouse and jail, he should 
have office. He was a man of influence and capacity, but 
made many suggestions to me and recommendations for office, 
of the most extraordinary character. I should like to have 
known him earlier, when he was himself" 

EARLY GENERALS.—" There were a few officers, when 
the war broke out, to whom we who had been in the army 
looked for success and high rank. I felt sure that each of 
them would gain the highest commands. Rosecrans was a 
great disappointment to us all — to me especially. General 
Stone's case was a mystery, and I think a great wrong was 
committed. I knew him at school. He was a good, able, 
loyal man. I believe if he had had a chance he would have 
made his mark. McDowell was the victim of ill luck. Peo- 
ple called him a drunkard and traitor. He never drank a drop 
of liquor in his life, and a more loyal man never lived. I have 
the greatest respect for his accomplishments and character, 
and was glad to make him a Major-General. Buell does not 
like me, I am afraid, but I have always borne testimony to 
his perfect loyalty and ability. He had genius for the highest 
commands, but somehow he fell under a cloud. The trouble 



600 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

with many of the generals in the beginning was that they did 
not believe in the war — I mean they did not have that complete 
assurance in success which belongs to good generalship. 
They had views about slavery, protecting rebel property, State 
rights — political views that interfered with their judgments. 
I do not mean that they were disloyal. A soldier has as 
good a right to his opinions as a citizen, and these men were 
as loyal as any men in the Union — would have died for the 
Union — but their opinions made them lukewarm, and many 
failures came of that. In some cases it was temperament. 
There was Warren, a good soldier and a good man, trained 
to war, who had risen to one of the highest commands. But 
as a general, if you gave him an order, he would hesitate 
until he knew what the other corps would do. Instead of 
obeying — and knowing that the power which was guiding the 
others would guide him — he would inquire and debate. It was 
this quality which led to the disaster at the mine explosion 
before Petersburg. Had he obeyed orders promptly we 
would have broken Lee's army in two. I should have relieved 
him then but did not like to injure an officer of so high rank 
for what was an error of judgment. But at Five Forks it 
was different. There was no time to think of rank or a per- 
son's feelings, and I told Sheridan to relieve him if he failed 
him. He did so, and no one regretted the necessity more 
than I did." 

SHERMAN— "I think history will approve the place 
given, in the war, to Sherman and Sheridan. I have known 
Sherman for thirty-five years. There never was but one cloud 
over our friendship and that only lasted three weeks. It was 
when Sherman's book came out. A correspondent printed 
some letters about it, which made it appear as disparaging 
some army officers, especially myself. I bought a book, in- 
tending to correct it as to myself and send it to Sherman, 
who I could not believe would disparage a comrade, for I 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 6oi 

had always found him true and knightly, and more anxious 
to honor others than to win honors himself. Well, I was 
moving to Long Branch, and could not look into the book 
for three weeks, during which time I am glad I did not see 
Sherman. Then when I got down to the book and finished 
it, I found that I approved every word of it ; that apart from 
a few mistakes which any writer would make, it was a true 
book, an honorable book, creditable to Sherman, just to his 
companions — to myself particularly so — just such a book as I 
expected Sherman would write. You cannot imagine how 
pleased I was, for my respect for Sherman was so great that 
I look on those three weeks as among the most painful in 
my remembrance. I wrote him, telling him my only objec- 
tion was to his criticism. of our civil soldiers, like Logan and 
Blair. Logan did a great work for the Union in bringing 
Egypt out of the Confederacy. He was an admirable soldier, 
an honorable, true man, whose record in the army was bril- 
liant. Blair also did a work in the war entitling him to the 
gratitude of every Northern man, and the respect of every 
soldier. Sherman is not only a great soldier but a great 
man — one of the very greatest in our country's history. He 
is a many-sided man — a writer and orator. As a general, I 
know of no man I would put above him. Then his character 
is fine — so frank, sincere, outspoken, genuine. I know what 
he was before Vicksburg. I set him to watching Johnston 
in my rear, and never had a moment's anxiety while Sher- 
man was there. I don't think he ever went to bed with his 
clothes off, or without visiting his pickets nightly during that 
campaign. His industry was prodigious. There is no man 
living for whose character I have a higher respect." 

THOMAS. — " I yield to no one in my admiration for 
Thomas. He was a fine character — one of the finest in the 
war. I was fond of him, and it was a severe trial to even 
think of removing him. But he was an inert man. He was 



602 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

slow to make up his mind, as a Virginian, which side to 
espouse. But when he thought it all out he was passionate in 
his love for the Union. As a commander he was slow. We 
used to say, ' Thomas is too slow to move and too brave to 
run away.' The success of his campaign will be its vindica- 
tion even against my criticisms. That success and all the 
fame that came with it belong to Thomas. We differed about 
the campaign but there could be no difference as to the effects 
of the battle. I have no doubt the disease of which he died — 
fatty degeneration of the heart — demanded of him constant forti- 
tude, and affected his actions on the field. His is one of the great 
names of history. He was one of the greatest heroes of the war, 
a rare and noble character, every way worthy of his fame." 

SHERIDAN. — "As a soldier, as a commander of troops, as a 
man capable of doing all that is possible with any number of 
men, there is no man living greater than Sheridan. He belongs 
to the very first rank of soldiers, not only of our country but 
the world. I rank him with Napoleon and Frederick and the 
great commanders in history. No man ever had such a faculty 
of finding out things as Sheridan, of knowing all about the 
enemy. He was always the best informed man in his com- 
mand as to the enemy. Then he had that magnetic quality of 
swaying men which I wish I had — a rare quality in a general." 

MEADE. — " Meade was certainly among the heroes of the 
war, and his name deserves all honor. I had great fondness 
for him. No general ever was more earnest. He had only 
one fault — his temper. A battle always put him in a fury. 
He raged from beginning to end. His own staff w r ould dread 
to report to him if anything were wrong. Under this harsh 
exterior, he had a gentle chivalrous heart, and w T as an accom- 
plished soldier and gentleman. He served with me to the end 
of the war and to my entire satisfaction." 

SEDGWICK. — "Sedgwick was a soldier of the highest 
ability, and though not in sympathy with the politics of the 




MAJ. GEN. GEO. G. MEADE 



604 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

government, he was loyal and devoted to the cause of the 
Union. Both he and Meade were men so finely formed that 
if ordered to resign their commissions and take service as cor- 
porals they would have fallen into the ranks without a mur- 
mur. Sedgwick's death was a great loss to the army." 

McPHERSON.—" I was very fond of McPherson, and his 
death was a great affliction. He was on my staff and there I 
learned his merit. Had he lived he would have come out of 
the war with a higher rank." 

HANCOCK. — " Hancock is a fine soldier. When he was made 
major-general my personal preferences were for Schofield, but I 
felt Hancock had earned the promotion, and I handed his name 
to Stanton. I have great respect for him as a man and soldier." 
WAR. — " I am always indulgent in my opinions of generals 
who did not succeed. There can be no greater mistake than 
to say that because generals failed in the field they lacked 
high qualities. Some of the men who were most unfortunate 
in our war were men in whom I had perfect confidence. 
Some failed because they lost the confidence of the country 
in trying to, gain that of politicians. Some failed because 
when they had won a victory they did not know what to do 
with it. Some were never started right. Some failed because 
they worked everything by rule. They were always think- 
ing about what Napoleon would do. Unfortunately for them 
the rebels would be thinking about something else. Military 
knowledge is all right, but slavish observance of rules will 
often bring failure. The conditions of war in Europe and 
America were wholly different. War is progressive, because 
all its instruments and elements are progressive. I do not 
believe in luck in war any more than in business. Luck may 
effect a single movement, but not a campaign or career. A 
successful general needs health, youth and energy. I should 
not like to put a general in the field over fifty. When I was 
in the army I had a physique that could stand anything. 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 60$ 

Whether I slept on the ground or in a tent, whether I slept 
one hour or ten in the twenty-four, whether I had one meal 
or three, or none, made no difference. I could lie down and 
sleep in the rain without caring. But I am many years older, 
and could not hope to do that now. The power to endure is 
an immense power, and naturally belongs to youth. The only 
eyes a general can trust are his own. There is nothing ideal 
in war." 

LINCOLN . — " I never saw him till he gave me my commis- 
sion as Lieutenant-General. Afterwards I saw him often either in 
Washington or at head-quarters. I may almost say he spent 
the last days of his life with me. I often recall those 
days. He came down to City Point during the last month of 
the war, and was with me all the time. He was a fine horse- 
man, and rode my horse Cincinnati. He was anxious about the 
closing of the war, was afraid we could not stand another cam- 
paign, and wanted to be around when the crash came. I have 
no doubt that Lincoln will be the conspicuous figure of the 
war; one of the great figures of history. He w 7 as a great man, 
a very great man. The more I saw of him, the more this im- 
pressed me. He was incontestably the greatest man I ever 
knew. What marked him especially, was his sincerity, his 
kindness, his clear insight into affairs. Under all, he had a firm 
will and a clear policy. People used to say that Seward swayed 
him, or Chase, or Stanton. This was a mistake. He might 
appear to go to them, but all the while they were going with 
him. And it was that gentle firmness in carrying out his own 
will without apparent force or friction, that formed the basis of 
his character. The darkest day of my life was when I heard of 
his assassination. I did not know what it meant. Here was the 
rebellion put down in the field and starting up in the gutters ; 
we had fought it as war and now we had to fight it as assassi- 
nation. On that night of April 14th, Lincoln had promised to 
go to the theatre, and wanted me to go with him. I received 



606 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

a note from Mrs. Grant, saying, she had resolved to go to Bur- 
lington on that evening to see the children. I made my excuse 
to Mr. Lincoln, and went with Mrs. Grant. In driving along 
Pennsylvania Avenue to the train, a horseman rode past us on 
a gallop, and back again, making the circuit of our carriage 
and looking into it. Mrs. Grant said, 'There is the man who 
sat near us at lunch to-day and tried to overhear our conversation. 
He was so rude that we left the dining room. He is now riding 
after us.' I thought it was only curiosity, but learned after- 
wards that it was Booth. It seems I was to have been attacked, 
and that Mrs. Grant's sudden resolve to leave, had deranged 
the plan. A few days afterwards I received an anonymous note 
from a man who said he had been detailed to kill me, had rid- 
den on my train as far as Havre de Grace, but had failed to 
get into my car because it was locked. He thanked God he 
had failed. I remember that the conductor locked our car, but 
how true the letter was, I cannot say." 

VALUE OF SERVICE.—" Personally I find no dissatisfac- 
tion with the estimate the Americans have placed on my ser- 
vices. I see no reason for dissatisfaction on the part of any of 
the chiefs of the army. But the South has been kinder to her 
soldiers than the North to those who composed her armies. 
In the South there is no surer way to public esteem than to 
have served in the army. In the North it is different. If you 
look at the roll of congress you will find that the list of Con- 
federate officers has been steadily increasing, while the list of 
Federal officers has decreased. The only senators of high 
army rank I recall, are Burnside and Logan, and those in the 
House, are Banks, Butler and Garfield. It makes me melan- 
choly to see this diminishing roll. While I would do nothing 
to revive unhappy memories in the South, I do not like to see 
our soldiers apologize for the war. Apart from emancipation 
and the triumph of the Union, it gave us a position as a nation 
among the nations of the world. That I have seen every day 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 607 

since I have been abroad, and to me it is one of the most grati- 
fying results of the war. That alone was worth making a great 
sacrifice for." 

PROMOTION.— "When the rebellion camel returned to 
the service because it was a duty. I had no thought of rank. 
All I did was to try to make myself useful. My first com- 
mission as brigadier came in the unanimous endorsement of 
the Illinois delegation. I did not know one of them except 
Washburne, and him not very well. It was only after Donelson 
that I began to see how important was the work that Provi- 
dence devolved upon me. Yet after Donelson I was in disgrace 
and under arrest, because of some misunderstanding on the 
part of Halleck. It all came right in time. I never bore him 
ill will, and we remained friendly. He was in command and 
it was his duty to command as he pleased. But I do not know 
what would have become of it, so far as I was concerned, had 
not the country interfered. You see Donelson was our first 
clear victory and great enthusiasm came with it. The country 
saved me from Halleck's displeasure. When other commands 
came I always regretted them. I wrote Mr. Washburne op- 
posing the bill to create the grade of Lieutenant-General with 
my name in connection with it. I did not want it. I found that 
the bill was right and I was wrong, when I came to command 
the Army of the Potomac — that a head was needed to the army. 
I did not want the Presidency and have never quite forgiven 
myself for resigning the command of the army to accept it ; 
but it could not be helped. I owed my honors and opportu- 
nities to the Republican party and if my name could aid it I 
was bound to accept. The second nomination was almost due 
to me — if I may be pardoned the phrase — because of the bit- 
terness of political and personal opponents. My re-election 
was a great gratification because it showed how the country 
felt Then came all the discussions about a third term. I was 
pressed to enter the canvass, and the pressure came from all 



608 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

sections. I said that under no circumstances would I be a 
candidate. Even if a nomination and election were assured I 
would not run. Both the nomination and election would have 
involved a struggle and my administration would have been 
crippled. This was the public view. I never wanted to get 
out of a place as much as I did to get out of the Presidency. 
Personally I was weary of office. For sixteen years, from the 
opening of the war, it had been a constant strain upon me. So 
when the third term was seriously presented to me I peremp- 
torily declined it." 

LEE. — " I never ranked Lee as high as some others in the 
army. I never had as much anxiety when he was in my front 
as when Joe Johnston was in front. Lee was a good man, a 
fair commander, who had everything in his favor. He was a 
man who needed sunshine. He was supported by the unani- 
mous voice of the South. He was supported by a large 
party in the North. He had the sympathy of the outside 
world. All this is of immense advantage to a general. Lee 
had this in a remarkable degree. Everything he did was right. 
He was treated like a demi-god. Our generals had a hostile 
press, lukewarm friends, and a public opinion outside. The cry 
was in the air that the North only won by brute force ; that 
the generalship and valor were with the South. This has gone 
into history with so many other illusions. Lee was of a slow, 
conservative, cautious nature, without imagination or humor ; 
always the same, with grave dignity. I never could see in 
his achievements what justifies his reputation. The illusion 
that nothing but heavy odds beat him will not stand the ulti- 
mate light of history. I know it is not true. Lee was a good 
deal of a headquarters' general ; a desk-general, from what I 
can hear, and from what his officers say. He was almost too 
old for active service — the best field service At the time of 
the surrender he was fifty-eight or nine His officers used to 
say that he posed himself, was retiring and exclusive, and that 



CONVERSATIONS AND OPINIONS. 609 

his headquarters were difficult of access. When Mr. Johnson, 
in the beginning of his administration, was making speeches, 
saying he had resolved to make all treason odious, and had 
made up his mind to arrest Lee and the leading Southern 
officers, I protested again and again. On one occasion Mr. 
Johnson asked why any military commander had a right to 
protect an arch-traitor from the laws ? I was angry at this, 
and said that as General it was none of my business what he 
or Congress did with General Lee and his other commanders. 
He might do as he pleased about civil rights, confiscation and 
so on. That did not come within my province. But a general 
commanding troops had certain responsibilities and duties and 
powers, which are supreme. He must deal with the enemy in 
front of him so as to destroy him. He must either kill him, 
capture him, or parole him. His engagements are sacred so 
far as they lead to the destruction of the foe. I had made 
certain terms with Lee — the best and only terms. If I had 
told him and his army that their liberty would have been in- 
vaded, that they would be open to arrest, trial, and execution 
for treason, he would never have surrendered, and we would 
have lost many lives in destroying him. Now my terms of 
surrender were according to military law, and so long as Lee 
was observing his parole, I would never consent to his arrest. 
Mr. Seward nodded approval. I should have resigned my 
command of the army rather than have carried out any order 
directing me to arrest Lee or any of his commanders who 
were obeying the laws." 

JEFFERSON DA VIS.—" Jefferson Davis did his best, did 
all that a man could do to save the Confederacy. The South 
was beaten from the beginning. There was no possible vic- 
tory for any government resting on the platform of the South- 
ern Confederacy. Just as soon as the war united and aroused 
the young men of the North, and called out the national feel- 
ing, there was no end but the end that came. Davis did all 
39 



6 10 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

he could for his side, and how much he did no one knows 
better than those in the field. I am told he directed Hood's 
movement in the West. If so, he could not have done us a 
greater service. But that was an error of judgment. He is 
entitled to every honor bestowed on the South for gallantry 
and persistence. The attacks on him by his old followers are 
ignoble. The South fell because it was defeated. Lincoln 
destroyed it, not Davis." 



REMINISCENCES. 

OPENING THE CENTENNIAL.— -President Grant 
opened the American Centennial of May ioth, 1876, at Phila- 
delphia, by delivering the following oration, the original 
manuscript of which, in his own handwriting, is now in the 
possession of George W. Childs, of the Ledger : 

" My Fellow-countrymen : It has been thought appropriate upon this 
Centennial occasion to bring together in Philadelphia for popular inspection speci- 
mens of our attainments in industrial and fine arts, and in literature, science and 
philosophy, as well as in the great business of agriculture and of commerce. 
That we may the more thoroughly appreciate the excellencies and deficiencies of 
our achievements, and also give emphatic expression to our earnest desire to 
cultivate the friendship of our fellow-members of this great family of nations, the 
enlightened agricultural, commercial and manufacturing people of the world have 
been invited to send hither corresponding specimens of their skill to exhibit on 
equal terms in friendly competition with our own. To this invitation they have 
generously responded ; for so doing we render them our hearty thanks. 

" The beauty and utility of the contributions will this day be submitted to your 
inspection by the managers of this Exhibition. We are glad to know that a view 
of specimens of the skill of all nations will afford to you unalloyed pleasure, as 
well as yield to you a valuable practical knowledge of so many of the remarkable 
results of the wonderful skill existing in enlightened commun ties. 

" One hundred years ago our country was new and but partially settled. Our 
necessities have compelled us to chiefly expend our means and time in felling 
forests, subduing prairies, building dwellings, factories, ships, docks, warehouses, 
roads, canals, machinery, etc., etc. Most of our schools, churches, libraries and 
asylums, have been established within a hundred years. Burthened by these great 



REMINISCENCES. 6ll 

primal works of necessity, which could not be pretermitted, we yet have done 
what this exhibition will show in the direction of rivaling older and more 
advanced nations in law, medicine and theology ; in science, literature, philosophy 
and the fine arts. Whilst proud of what we have done, we regret that we have 
not done more. Our achievements have been great enough, however, to make it 
easy for our people to acknowledge superior merit wherever found. 

" And now, fellow-citizens, I hope a careful examination of what is about to 
be exhibited to you will not only inspire you with a profound respect for the skill 
and taste of our friends from other nations, but also satisfy you with the attain- 
ments made by our own people during the past one hundred years. I invoke 
your generous co-operation with the worthy commissioners to secure a brilliant 
success to this International Exhibition, and to make the stay of our foreign 
visitors — to whom we extend a hearty welcome — both profitable and pleasant to 
them. I declare the International Exhibition now open." 

THE GRANT PRESENTS.— The souvenirs and tokens of 
honor received by General Grant, at home and abroad, and 
which he designed to present to the Government at his death, 
were taken in execution by Mr. Vanderbilt and transferred in trust 
to Mrs. Grant. She immediately gave them to the Government. 
They passed into the hands of the Government on June I ith, 
1885. They were valued at $100,000. The list is as follows: 

Mexican onyx cabinet, presented to General Grant by the 
people of Pueblo, Mex. ; aerolite, part of which passed over 
Mexico in 1871 ; Bronze vases, presented to General Grant by 
the people of Yokohama, Japan ; marble bust and pedestal, 
presented by the working-men of Philadelphia ; large elephant 
tusks, presented by the King of Siam ; small elephant tusks, 
presented by the Maharajah of Johore ; picture of General Scott, 
by Page, presented by gentlemen of New York; crackle-ware 
bowls (very old), presented by prince Koon, of China ; cloi- 
sonne (old), presented by Li Hung Chang; Chinese porcelain 
jars (old), presented by Prince Koon, of China; Aroleian Bible; 
Coptic Bible, presented by Lord Napier, who captured it with 
King Theodore, of Abyssinia ; sporting rifle ; sword of Donel- 
son, presented to General Grant after the fall of Fort Donelson, 
by officers of the army, and used by him to the end of the 



6l2 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

war; New York sword, voted to General Grant at a New York 
fair ; sword of Chattanooga, presented by citizens of Jo-Daviess 
County 111. (Galena), after the battle of Chattanooga ; Roman 
mug and pitcher ; silver menu and card, farewell dinner of San 
Francisco, Cal. ; Silver menu of Paris dinner ; horn and silver 
snuff box ; Silver match box, used by General Grant ; gold 
table, model after the table in Mr. McLean's house, on which 
General R. E. Lee signed the articles of surrender, and pre- 
sented to General Grant by ex-Confederate soldiers : gold 
cigar cases, from the Celestial and second Kings of Siam; 
gold-handled knife, presented by miners of Idaho Territory ; 
silver trowel, used by General Grant in laying the corner-stone 
of the Museum of Natural History, New York; knife made at 
Sheffield for General Grant ; General Grant's gold pen ; em- 
broidered picture (cock and hen), presented by citizens of Ja- 
pan ; field-glasses, used by General Grant during the war ; iron- 
headed cane, made from the rebel ram Merrimac ; silver-headed 
cane, from wood used in defense of Fort Sumpter; gold-headed 
cane, made out of wood from old Fort Duquesne, Pa.; gold- 
headed cane, presented in token of General Grant's humanity 
during the war; gold-headed cane, used by Lafayette, and 
presented by the ladies of Baltimore; carved wood cane, from 
estate of Sir Walter Scott ; uniform as general of the United 
States army ; fifteen buttons, cut from his coats during the war 
by Mrs. Grant, after various battles ; shoulder-straps (brigadier 
general), worn by General Grant at Belmont, Fort Donelson 
and Shiloh, and straps of lieutenant general, cut from the coat 
used by General Grant in the campaigns against Richmond, 
Petersburg and Lee's army ; medal (gold), from the American 
Congress for opening the Mississippi ; gold medal from Phila- 
delphia ; forty-five medals in gold, silver and bronze ; collec- 
tion of Japanese coin, the only complete set except one in the 
Japanese Treasury. Seven of these pieces cost $5,000. Pre- 
sented by the government of Japan; warrant as cadet at West 



REMINISCENCES. 613 

Point, and army commissions from brevet second lieutenant to 
that of General of the United States Army. 

The list concludes with sixty-seven papers and mementoes, 
comprising addresses, honorary society commissions and reso- 
lutions of respect, as well as the freedom of cities presented 
abroad. 

GEORGE W. CHILDS REMINISCENCES.— ''The last 
time I saw General Grant was in March, 1885, at his home in 
New York. While we were chatting I observed that it was 
half-past eleven o'clock, and the General said : ' I suppose the 
Senate is adjourning now.' Just then I received a telegram 
from Mr. Drexel, stating that General Grant had been placed 
on the retired list. ' There, General/ said I, ' read that.' A 
smile of pleasure illuminated his countenance, and for a 
moment he appeared unable to speak. Mrs. Grant entered 
the room, and I told her the news. With a beaming face 
she cried out : ' They have brought us back our old com- 
mander.' The scene was very affecting. The General could 
hardly express the delight he felt at the compliment which 
had been paid to him. He bore not the slightest ill-will 
toward those who had opposed the bill, for he is the most 
magnanimous man I ever knew. 

" The greatest soldier that ever lived, he is as kind and 
gentle as a woman. He frequently told me how much it 
pained him to be accused of butchery. He said he was always 
overcome by a feeling of sadness before a battle at the thought 
that many a poor fellow would never return from the field. 
He is generous to a fault, and has given away a fortune 
in charities. In this, like in everything else, he was modest. 
The same modesty that prevented him from asking for an 
appointment or a promotion caused him to maintain silence 
concerning his gifts to the needy. 

" I remember that when he was on one of his visits to me 
during his Presidency a great many people called here to ask 



6 14 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

favors of him. Not caring to have him worried, I refused 
admittance to all whom I suspected of being on an errand of 
that kind. One day a lady who lived in the same block — in 
fact, only a few doors from my house — called and asked to see 
him. ' You may see her, General,' I said, laughing ; ' I guess 
she is not after an appointment.' He came back in a little 
while and said,' You were wrong; she was after an appoint- 
ment' I looked at him in astonishment, and he explained 
that the lady wanted him to transfer the sister-in-law of Edwin 
M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, from the Mint, where 
she was then employed, and where the work was too hard for 
her, to the Treasury Department. He requested me to see the 
Assistant United States Treasurer in this city and ask him to 
give her a position. I did so, and the Assistant Treasurer told 
me he had no vacancy. ' General Grant's request is law, how- 
ever,' said he, 'and I can make room for the lady by re- 
moving another who has no need for a position here.' This 
was done, and some time afterward I met a son of Mrs. Stan- 
ton (the latter was dead at the time), who thanked me for get- 
ting his aunt the appointment. ' General Grant appointed 
her,' said I. ' Oh, no,' said he, ' General Grant himself told me 
that you had gotten the appointment for her.' This is charac- 
teristic of the General, who is continually doing good and 
giving others the credit. 

" He loves Philadelphia, and has a great many friends here. 
As an example of his esteem for Philadelphians, I will tell 
you of something that is not known to any one but the 
General, the interested parties, and myself. Mr. A. E. Borie 
was not the only Philadelphian who was offered a Cabinet 
position by General Grant. Four other gentlemen in this 
city were requested to become members of his Cabinet. 
They declined, and the matter was never made public. They 
are still living in this city, and one of them has held a very 
high position. 



REMINISCENCES. 615 

" It was at my recommendation that General Grant took the 
cottage at Long Branch. It adjoins mine, and there is no 
fence between the two properties. There the General has 
spent some of the happiest days of his life. He usually got 
up about seven o'clock in the morning, ate his breakfast, and 
then took a drive of about twenty miles. He went alone in 
his buggy. On his return, he would look over his mail and 
read the newspapers. He dined at two o'clock generally, 
although for some years his dinner hour was seven, with a 
lunch at two. 

" After the meal at two o'clock he took another drive, and 
in the evening he sat on the porch and chatted with friends, 
many of whom visited him. We called on each other every 
day, and he sometimes strolled over to my cottage and talked 
with me while he enjoyed his cigar. 

" While the General is fond of a fast horse, he never visited 
the race course at Long Branch, and never entered a gambling 
house. He told of a laughable incident that occurred to him 
while taking one of his twenty-mile drives. On the road, a 
short distance ahead of him, he saw a countryman driving a 
mean-looking horse with a shabby buggy. Determined not 
to take the dust from such a sorry turnout, he gave his horse 
the head and tried to pass. But the countryman also loosed 
the lines and held his position. After quite an exciting race, 
the General saw he was beaten, and pulled up his horse. The 
countryman turned in his seat, and, waving his hand, said, 
with a laugh, ' I made you take my dust, General,' and drove 
off. The General enjoyed the joke on himself very much, and 
said he would like to meet that man again, but he never did. 

"The last time General Grant appeared in public was at 
Ocean Grove. Governor Oglesby, of Illinois, was with him, 
and the Governor told me that when the cheers often thousand 
people rang out at the sight of the old hero, he turned around 
and saw the tears coursing slowly down the General's cheeks, 



6l6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

"I thought it would be very hard for him to stop smoking 
when his physicians prohibited it. His indomitable will made 
the matter easy to him, however. ' Did you find it difficult to 
give up the weed ?' I asked him. ' It was hard during the 
first two days,' he replied, 'but after that I did not mind it. I 
have no desire to smoke again.' 

" It has been said that Hamilton Fish wrote the speech the 
General made at the opening of the Centennial Exhibition. 
General Grant wrote that speech in this house, and I have the 
original manuscript." 

BEECHERS PORTRAIT.— This tribute was paid to Gen- 
eral Grant at prayer-meeting in Plymouth church, when his 
death was expected in April, 1885. "General Grant is at 
death's door. It may be weeks, it may be months, it may be 
hours. I cannot help praying for him. I pray for him as I 
go along the street. I do not pray that he may be saved — 
that is as the Lord wills. Going or staying is the same for 
him or for me, except that the part for him will be glory, for I 
trust that General Grant in the essential elements of his char- 
acter is Christian. There are some remarkable things about 
him. No man ever heard Grant speak an irreverent word. 
No man ever heard General Grant, even in the narration of a 
story, use profane language. Never on the battle-field, never 
in those exigencies where men are provoked, did any man 
ever hear General Grant speak a word that was not in moder- 
ation and good faith. I believe that the essential elements of 
his character are based upon religion, and he is altogether a 
church-going man ; he has always believed in it. See w T hat a 
wonderful career he has had in the latter part of his life. His 
has been a hard life all the way through. His early life was 
not a pleasant one — I mean after he left West Point. I need 
not say anything about that great civil war, where he was the 
Atlas upon whose shoulders the nation rested. What toil ! 
If he had not had an iron constitution it would have broken 



REMINISCENCES. 617 

him down. When he came out of it and went to the Presi- 
dency, for which he had never had any training, and where his 
mistakes lay in fidelity to friends, he showed a great magnan- 
imity of character. He does not doubt friends easily. If he 
takes hold of one he sticks to him, and he is in that regard 
credulous. And so his credulity was abused. The mistakes 
of his administration lay at the door of the good qualities of 
the man. I have been with him a good deal and I have never 
heard him say a bad word about any human being. I have 
never heard him utter a sentiment that might not become a 
judge sitting coolly and calmly on the bench. He came out 
from his public relations and entered into business, and then 
storm came upon him. It struck him just where it was hardest 
to bear. It made him, as it were, the derision of men for the 
time. And, as in the war and in the Presidential chair, 
he opened not his mouth in detraction, not even in answer, but 
stood and bore whatever was laid upon him. In all his finan- 
cial troubles, never a murmuring word ! And then came dis- 
ease, fateful disease, slowly undermining — going steadily down, 
down, and not a murmur ! Sublime instance of fortitude and 
patience ! I cannot help praying for him in my thoughts. 
My thoughts rise up round about the throne in his behalf." 

To this vivid portrait Mr. Beecher added the concluding 
touches, on the announcement of General Grant's death, 
thus : — "The judgment we pass upon the commander should 
be based not alone on his success ; we should consider, in Gen- 
eral Grant's case, what he had to manage and what he had to 
overcome, the nature of his conflict and its enormous scope, 
the wide stretching field of his operations, the volume and the 
vastness of his armies, and the potent factor shown in the fire 
and devotion and courage of the Southern men, and the 
relative apathy and slowness — not to say torpidity — of the 
North. The conditions I name have to be taken into account 
in trying to arrive at a fair estimate of Grant's greatness and 



6l8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the grandeur of his military conceptions and combinations. 
He came to power through a series of wonderful successes at 
Donelson, at Vicksburg, at Missionary Ridge. But still, when 
called to the supreme generalship it was not to find a concen- 
trated, centralized military force at command. It was his 
work to carry into effect the grand policy of centralization, and 
under him all the operations in the West, in the Middle States, 
in the East, became parts of one great plan, powerful and har- 
monious. Grant's was the genius, the very highest genius, of 
common sense developed in military affairs. With all due 
credit to his subordinate generals, and after all the detractions 
that mean and unjust criticisms have made or can make, still 
Grant must be regarded as the greatest general who has ap- 
peared on our shores or that in this age has appeared in any 
land. It is very difficult, I take it, to give now any detailed 
estimate of General Grant as a man separate from his profes- 
sion. He was an anomaly among American men, in that 
he had simplicity and modesty almost ununderstandable 
among the people and the age in which he lived. The char- 
acter of his mind was such as to leave his perceptions almost 
untouched by emotion, by imagination, by political feeling, or 
by any sensitiveness to praise or blame. He possessed the 
pure crystalline vision of a practical intellect. He saw 
things as they were in the world, unswerved by the mobile 
conceptions of the human soul. He was not daunted by fear; 
he was not excited by hops. Imagination did not magnify 
his vision. He was cool, calm, clear-sighted, correct. Neither, 
I think, have we ever had in history a mind more generous, 
disinterested and magnanimous. Grant had the power of 
hating bad men. But even that hatred he never exhibited in 
an offensive way. He had not the knack of petulance or 
anger. One cannot even perceive any undue impatience or 
anger when overruled by the jealousy of Halleck or in other 
trying times. The success of any subordinate pleased him ; 



REMINISCENCES. 619 

the advancement of other men never provoked him to jealousy. 
When the names of Thomas, McPherson, Sherman, Sheridan 
and the rest of the list of his fellow-heroes were mentioned in 
his presence it always brought beams of pleasure to his eyes, 
and an unlimited number of instances might be recorded of 
his generous thoughts of all his compeers. And in this dis- 
position of their chief I think existed largely the influence 
which led to harmony among the leading Union generals, a 
harmony that led to results great and magnificent. If it had 
ever been possible for any man to have excited the jealousy of 
Grant it would most likely have been that brilliant soldier, 
Sherman. But two devoted brothers could not have got 
along together better or more harmoniously than did these 
great captains, bound by mutual love and confidence. In the 
soldier's last sickness and death has been consummated, I be- 
lieve, what his sword made pathway for. North and South 
clasping hands above the bier of the hero — not the North's 
but the Nation's hero — testify that the end is come to strife of 
section, and that fraternity and union are here at last. Grant 
has not died in vain. The United States have just occasion 
for pride in his fame. In the midst of great successes and 
boundless praises, maintaining his modest demeanor and great 
simplicity and singular honesty and manliness, he was a man 
to be loved by those who were near, and admired by those 
afar off — his a name to be celebrated as the greatest on the 
horizon of American history." 

REMINISCENCES BY GENERAL BEALE.— " Yes, I 
have been a very intimate friend of General Grant for the past 
fifteen years. My first acquaintance with him was not a per- 
sonal one, however. It was through the news of his victories 
at Donelson. We were then in California, where everything was 
cast in gloom. We had no railroads, nor telegraph, and all 
the previous news we had was that everything was going 
against us. We felt as if we were sitting on a powder maga- 



620 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

zine which was apt to explode at any moment. When we 
heard of Grant's victories we felt that a man had arrived at 
last who could save his country. 

" Later, my acquaintance with General Grant ripened into 
the warmest friendship. To say that I considered him a great 
man does not express it. He was the greatest man I know of. 
He fought and won battles the like of which have never 
occurred in modern or ancient history. Everybody is fami- 
liar with his military and other public achievements ; but in 
his private life, his personal characteristics shone with equal 
brilliancy. 

" His three most prominent and admirable traits were guile- 
lessness of character, even temperament and great magnan- 
imity. As I said, and as you know, my friendship with Gen- 
eral Grant was of the most intimate nature. In all my daily 
companionship with him, at home or abroad, I never heard 
General Grant make a remark which could not be repeated 
with propriety before a room full of ladies. His character 
was wholly pure and free from guile. 

" I ought not to refer to the reports that he drank to 
excess, for they are too senseless and untrue, but I will say that 
during the whole period that I have known him, in riding to 
and from my farm near this city two or three times a week, 
in dining at the same table, in walking the streets of Paris 
until 2 o'clock in the morning for amusement, I have never 
seen him when he wasn't as clear-headed as you and I are 
now. 

"His even disposition was something wonderful to me, and I 
have seen him tried almost beyond endurance. He never 
cursed and swore at people, and he never lost control of him- 
self. He was always able to do what he considered right. 

" I saw him once, while at a white heat of vexation in the 
library at the White House, put personal prejudices and 
wishes aside and do his duty without question. He had been 



REMINISCENCES. 62 1 

abused and slandered by a certain person to such an extent 
that he could only recognize him as a personal and bitter 
enemy. The question arose whether that person should be 
nominated to the Senate or not for a position. I knew all the 
circumstances and said to General Grant : 

" ' What are you going to do about it ? ' 

" ' Do about it ?' he repeated. ' I will send his name to the 
Senate. He has deserved his appointment by his services to 
his country, and no personal ill feeling on my part shall pre- 
vent his obtaining what he deserves. 

" He sat down and signed the nomination and it was sent 
to the Senate at once. He was generous in the extreme. It 
was always difficult for him to refuse requests made of him. 
I could tell you instances *)f his great kindness of heart which 
you would scarcely believe, but little things will show this trait 
as well as great ones. 

" When General Grant has been a visitor at my house chil- 
dren would overwhelm him with requests for his autograph. 
Often when we would return home late at night from some 
reception, tired and sleepy, on his table would be a pile of 
autograph albums a foot or two high. Mrs. Beale would say : 
' Come, General, it is time to retire. You are tired and need 
rest. Don't stop to write in those books to-night, but wait 
till morning.' ' No,' General Grant would reply, ' I'll do it 
to-night. These books belong to little children and they will 
stop for them on their way to school in the morning and I 
don't want to disappoint them,' and he would write in every 
one. 

" He had a wonderful faculty as a writer. His mind grasped 
the whole subject, and he wrote without hesitation. I have seen 
him write for hours without stopping for a word. He made 
fewer corrections in his writing than any one I ever knew. 

"During his military experiences he had learned that it was 
his duty to do the engineering and planning and to leave the 



622 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

details to his lieutenants. In this way he became accustomed 
to placing the most implicit confidence in those near him, for 
he supposed they would do their duty as he would do his. So 
that to confidence in others alone can his terrible misfortunes 
in New York be attributed. I can understand why some peo- 
ple should criticize and disagree with General Grant, particu- 
larly military men, but I can't understand how a man could 
deliberately plot to ruin him. 

" General Grant was very fond of Washington, and always 
looked forward to returning here. Indeed, he was drawn to 
New York only that he might not be separated from his sons, 
who w T ere in business there. That the people of Washington 
were fond of General Grant there is no doubt. A walk down 
the avenue any day showed that. ^Nothing but kindly greet- 
ings and friendly bows on every side. Washington City should 
claim his remains. His reputation is national. You and I 
have just as much individual ownership in it as we have in 
the public buildings. This is the national centre, and every- 
thing of national character belongs here. What more fitting 
resting place for his remains could be found than the centre 
of the large circle south of the White House, beneath the 
shadows of the Washington Monument ?" 

PORTERS REMINISCENCES.— The following by General 
Horace Porter, who was on Grant's staff during the war and 
his intimate friend ever after, is full of historic value : " He 
was cast in a different mould from any of the historical gene- 
rals. I think he was the most ready man I have ever known. 
Persons have come to him while busy and asked for letters 
upon some subject, and, instead of putting it off, General Grant 
would most always immediately write what was requested, and 
it would be as clear and compact as though done by some 
literary man who had studied it out and revised it twice. 
I recall an instance of General Grant's readiness in emergency. 
On the night of the second day of the Wilderness fight, when 



REMINISCENCES. 623 

Sedgwick's corps had been broken and Shaler and Seymour 
captured, General Grant staid in his headquarters and listened 
to fast coming reports of perplexity and trouble, but he turned 
to one and another, and talked off his orders with as much 
precision and display of judgment as though he had been 
studying that unexpected situation for two months, and all who 
saw him watched and listened and wondered. 

"And again, General Grant was called upon to give a hearing 
unexpectedly in a case he had not before heard of. The case 
involved a quantity of cotton, and in its decision it also 
involved questions of international and maritime law, and also 
of contraband laws and cotton in foreign bottoms. Well, the 
lawyers came before the General and argued at length, and 
when they had done he turned and rendered a decision that 
left no room for further argument, so clear and cogent were 
its points. Afterward one of the lawyers came to me and 
asked me where that man, meaning the General, had studied 
law; but I told him General Grant had never studied law, and 
his comprehensive grasp and information were facts that I 
could tell nothing about. I never saw him angry but once, 
and that was when he saw a brutal fellow clubbing a horse 
over the head. The General seized the man, told him he was 
a brute and punished him for impudence, of which he was 
guilty to the General, but I never heard him utter an oath 
nor any approach to it, and I was with him nine years without 
ever being away from him more than two weeks. General 
Grant was a splendid rider, and a fine whip as w 11. He could 
ride forty or fifty miles and come in perfectly fresh, and tire 
out younger men. He was much attached to a little horse 
that was called Jeff Davis, because he was secured on Jeff 
Davis' plantation. He was an easy animal to ride, and was 
easily guided through ins and outs, but when fording streams, 
'Jeff was at a disadvantage. There was besides a noble, 
big, bay-colored fellow named Cincinnati, which General 



624 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Grant used to ride. That horse would ford a stream 
magnificently. 

" It was on little Jeff that General Grant, accompanied by 
myself and an orderly, rode out to the front on the morning 
when there was that hour of delay in the explosion of our 
mine at Petersburg. The General wore a little blue blouse 
that morning, and many of the men as we passed to the front 
did not know that its wearer was General Grant. The firing: 
was getting very heavy, and I suggested that we dismount, 
because we could get about much easier. I did not say that 
the firing was terrific, for that would have been to him no argu- 
ment for dismounting. So we dismounted, the orderly holding 
little Jeff by the bridle, and then General Grant made his way 
through the lines and works clear out to the front, where the 
firing was heavy, indeed; but he was a man who never winked 
in the face of missies, and the only one of two men I ever saw 
who would not involuntarily do so. The other was a bugler. 
General Grant was a free, easy-going, accessible sort of a man 
— a man of the people. He enjoyed being among his men 
during the war, and in private life, when riding in a special car 
perhaps, he would go forward and take half a seat with some 
passenger in the front car when he wanted to smoke. It is sad, 
sad, that, with ten ripe years naturally before him, such a man 
should needs be taken, and I think the loss will be more 
appreciated by the people as time goes on." 

CRESWELLS * PORTRAIT.— Hon. J. A. J. Creswell, a 
member of Grant's cabinet, thus pictures his old friend: 

" I had more admiration for General Grant than for any man I 
ever saw, and it grieves me to the soul that he should be ending 
his days in suffering. I knew Lincoln and I knew Stanton, 
and these two, with Grant, make the distinguished trio — Grant 
the great soldier, Stanton the executive officer and Lincoln the 
great arbiter. 

" Grant's qualities of true manliness were more pronounced 



REMINISCENCES. 625 

than those of any man I ever knew. In all my close relations 
with him while I was a member of his Cabinet, I never heard 
him say a harsh or petty thing, never heard him speak impul- 
sively or use a profane word. His relations with his family 
were most delightful and charming. There never was a kinder 
or more indulgent father, and I never saw a more devoted 
couple than General and Mrs. Grant. Of course, everybody 
knows how he loved his daughter. The meeting between them 
the other day was very touching, and the emotion shown by 
the old warrior exhibited the depth of his affection. 

" General Grant's great characteristic, however, was his sub- 
lime and unflinching courage. It was of that kind that no im- 
pression could be made upon it by opposition. He discharged 
his duties always without selfishness, never stopping to con- 
sider how an action would affect him personally. All he 
wanted to know was, ' What is just? What is right ? ' I remem- 
ber an instance of this kind at the time we had a postal treaty 
with Japan, which gave us almost entire control of the Japanese 
postal service. When their relations grew more intimate with 
us and with other nations, they desired to have charge of their 
own service, and took steps in that direction. 

"After the Japanese Minister had talked with me about a 
treaty to that effect, I went to Grant and laid the matter before 
him. I found that he had but one idea, to do what was right 
and just toward Japan. I pointed out to him that if he should 
sign such a treaty ,we would be surrendering our control of the 
Japanese service, and would be subjected to severe criticism, 
especially on the Pacific coast. ' But isn't it right ? ' was his 
reply, ' Can there be any doubt about it ? ' I told him I only 
wanted to advise him of the consequences. He was satisfied 
that the treaty was just and he signed it. 

" Grant never lost his head. W T hen we came so near being 
engaged in a war with Spain on account of the Virginius affair, 
there was a good deal of excitement at the Cabinet meeting, 
40 



626 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and a war with Spain was imminent. Grant knew what was 
meant, and by his coolness and sound judgment prevented it. 
He was assisted in this by the Spanish representative in this 
country, who was a naval officer. He, too, knew what fight- 
ing meant, and these two really prevented a war. 

" In circumstances when most men would be apt to lose their 
heads, on the field of battle, for instance, Grant's mind seemed 
all the more stronger and clearer. Rawlins told me once that 
in the confusion of the battle-field, Grant's orders were more 
explicit and clearer than when everything was quiet. He 
seemed never to get confused. I asked Grant once if, when 
giving orders for an engagement, he was not appalled by the 
great loss of life which would ensue. He replied, ' No, it was 
war, but I realized what it meant. I never gave an order 
until I was satisfied that it was the best course to pursue, and 
then I was willing to shoulder the responsibility.' He added 
that many men failed as commanders simply because of an un- 
willingness to assume this responsibility. 

" He wrote with great facility. His style, like his character, 
was the embodiment of directness. He used few metaphors, 
and little ornamentation, and never two words where one would 
do, preferring Saxon words to Latin or French. He never 
hesitated for a word, and always went right to the point. He 
wrote all his own papers — notwithstanding the reports to the 
contrary — and all his messages were framed and written by 
him. 

" He had a very quick eye, and it was surprising to me how 
he could take in the whole topography at a glance. I remem- 
ber once when he was visiting me at my farm, I took him a 
long drive around the country. I took a by-road, intending to 
strike the main road, but missed my way. Finally I laughingly 
confessed it. ' Where did you want to go ? ' he asked. ' I wanted 
to strike a road which would take me to the village which lies 
in that direction.' He stood up in the buggy, and, looking 



REMINISCENCES. 627 

over the surrounding country, said, ' If you will let down the 
fence here, drive over this field and then through that gate up 
yonder, I think you'll strike the road you want on that ridge.' 
' Why do you think so ? ' I asked. ' Well, you say the village 
is in that direction' (pointing) ; ' Up there I see quite a settle- 
ment. The people who live there will have a way to reach the 
village, and they couldn't find a better way than along that 
ridge.' 

"I did as he advised, and found the road just where he said 
I would. I expressed surprise at his accuracy, and he replied : 
\ It is part of my business to find roads. A good soldier should 
be able, by seeing a portion of the country, to form a good 
judgment of what the rest is.' 

" Now, about Grant's third term project, he didn't desire to 
be President a third term for any glory or reputation, but his 
sole object was to reconcile the North and South, and I think 
he would have done it thoroughly. The solid South would 
have been a thing of the past 

" I think his body should be buried at the Soldiers' Home. 
Nothing could be more appropriate than that the grave 
of the greatest soldier of the age should be in the Soldiers' 
Home. 

A SICK-ROOM SKETCH.— The following sketch of the 
sick-room situation was drawn by a particular friend just 
before the removal to Mt. McGregor : " His physical suffer- 
ings began with his fall a year ago last December. Since 
then he has suffered terribly — no one knows how much, for 
he never complains. After that fall, when he injured his hip, 
pleurisy set in. It was a severe attack. Then he began to 
suffer from neuralgia, with intense pains in the head. His 
system had been shocked by the fall. The neuralgia helped 
to reduce it. As a means of relieving the neuralgia, he had 
several teeth drawn. He refused to take an anaesthetic, and 
had them drawn at one sitting. That exercise of his wonder- 



628 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ful will, in his then debilitated condition, gave the system 
another shock, from which it could not rally. Then this 
terrible disease of the tongue appeared. It has been a steady 
drain upon him, reducing his flesh rapidly and weakening him 
beyond any former experience. But he has stood it all with- 
out a murmur, just as he has taken all the reverses and trials 
of his life. To see him wasting and sinking in this way is 
more touching, and excites deeper sympathy among his friends, 
than if he made some sign of his sufferings, as ordinary men 
do, by grumbling and complaint. 

"The thing from which he has suffered most of late is 
insomnia. I said it seemed strange that he should suffer from 
that, as he had always been a remarkably good sleeper. I 
reminded him that on the field, no matter what the weather or 
how heavily charged he might be with responsibilities, some- 
times with a battle on his hands for the next day, I had seen 
him drop down in the mud and rain and be sound asleep in 
two minutes. He meant always to get eight hours' sleep. He 
said it was a strange thing to him that he could not sleep, and 
that he regretted nothing so much. During my calls I have 
seen him more often in his sleeping-room than elsewhere. He 
usually sits in an easy chair. Another is rolled up close to it, 
facing it. On the second chair he stretches his legs. As the 
neuralgic pains still trouble him, he wears a knit cap nearly 
all the time. When the pains are specially severe, very hot 
cloths are applied to the head. They bring relief quicker 
than anything else. In talking, he tries to speak without 
moving the tongue. This interferes with enunciation, but it 
saves him pain. He could enunciate well enough if it were 
not for this effort to keep the tongue motionless. Of course, 
talking is tiresome. He tries to do a good deal of it, but is 
discouraged by his family and the physicians." 

WALT WHITMAN'S PICTURE.— "I too, am willing 
and anxious to bear testimony to the departed General. Now 



REMINISCENCES. 629 

that Grant is dead it seems to me that I may consider him as 
one of those examples or models for the people and character- 
formation of the future, age after age — always to me the most 
potent influence of a really distinguished character — greater 
than any personal deeds or life, however important they may 
have been. I think General Grant will stand the test perfectly 
through coming generations. True, he had no artistic or 
poetical element ; but he furnished the concrete of those 
elements for imaginative use, perhaps beyond any man of the 
age. He was not the finely painted portrait itself, but the 
original of the portrait. What we most need in America are 
grand individual types, consistent with our own genius. The 
West has supplied two superb native illustrations in Lincoln 
and Grant. Incalculable as their deeds were for the practical 
good of the nation for all time, I think their absorption into 
the future as elements and standards will be the best part of 
them. 

" Washington and all those noble early Virginians were, 
strictly speaking, English gentlemen of the royal era of 
Hampden, Pym and Milton, and such it was best that they 
were for their day and purposes. No breath of mine shall 
ever tarnish the bright, eternal gold of their fame. But Grant 
and Lincoln are entirely native on our own model, current 
and Western. The best of both is their practical, irrefragable 
proof of radical Democratic institutions — that it is possible 
for any good average American farmer or mechanic to be 
taken out of the ranks of the common millions and put in the 
position of severest military or civic responsibility and fully 
justify it all for years, through thick and thin. I think this 
the greatest lesson of our national existence so far. 

" Then, the incredible romance of Grant's actual career and 
life! In all Homer and Shakspeare there is no fortune or 
personality really more picturesque or rapidly changing, more 
full of heroism, pathos, contrast." 



630 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ANECDOTES. 



These are many, illustrating the different phases of his 
character. A few only can be given, as samples of the whole 

"EBERY TING GOING RIGHT, SAH".— On one of 
the hottest days in August, 1864, Lieutenant-General Grant 




****** 



gUESTIONING GENERAL GRANT. 



rode up to the City Point Hospital and asked for a drink of 
water. A cup of lemonade sweetened with brown sugar was 
handed him with the remark, " We have no water, General. 



ANECDOTES. 63 1 

This is the lemonade we give the men in the hospitals." The 
General drank it, declared it could not be better, and then 
shook hands with the delegates who crowded around him. 
Asking for his accustomed light and turning to mount, a negro 
employee pushed his way through the crowd, and extending 
his enormous hand, said : 

" How dedo Gin-ral Grant?" 

The words were spoken with deference, and the man's 
appearance showed he was not attracted by idle curiosity. 
The General shook the hand warmly. 

" How am tings going, Gin-ral ? " 

It was just after the fatal mine explosion at Petersburg, and 
there was great depression and anxiety among the colored 
people. The General quieted his fears by, 

" O, everything is going right, sir." 

The negro bowed politely, his eyes beaming with gratitude. 
Backing out of the circle and returning cheerfully to work, he 
was asked where he had been. 

" Been to see Gin-ral Grant, sah." 

" What did he have to say ? " 

" Said eberyting was going right, sah." 

In a short time the General's sentence was on the lips of the 
entire colored population of City Point, and it was astonishing 
how in a few hours it revived the spirits of the disheartened 
race. 

HIS CONSIDERATION.— The first time General Grant 
left Culpeper for Washington a special train was made up to 
accommodate the sick and those on leave of absence. One 
passenger car in the train was reserved for the General and 
the two or three officers with him. All the cars except this 
one were soon crowded, and many soldiers, were standing on 
the platform. Grant and his officers, all plainly dressed, 
entered their car without attracting attention. The General 
was sitting alone on the side of the car next to the platform 



632 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and near the door, when a soldier came to the door and was 
told by the guard that he could not come into that car. Gen- 
eral Grant asked the guard what the man wanted, and was told 
that he wanted to go to Washington. The General then asked 
why he was not permitted to come into the car, and was an- 
swered that " This car is a special car for General Grant and his 
staff." The General replied quickly, " Let him come in. I 
only occupy one seat in this car." This was the first intima- 
tion the guard had that General Grant and his staff were in 
the car. The General then asked what the other men were 
doing who were standing out on the platform, and being told 
that they wanted to go to Washington, he said, " Let all who can 
crowd in get in." The car was soon filled, one private soldier 
taking a seat beside the General and engaging him in conver- 
sation nearly all the way to Alexandria, not knowing with 
whom he was talking. 

HIS GENEROSITY.— When General Grant was Presi- 
dent one of his nearest friends, who is now dead, went to ex- 
Congressman Paige to ask a loan of $3000. This friend said 
he had an affair in the War Department that would net him 
$50,000, which would certainly go through if Grant would 
approve it. This gentleman counted upon Grant's approval 
as absolute. Paige told him : " I will let you have the money, 
but you may be sure that he will not approve it unless it is 
right." Time passed on. The note given for the loan was 
promptly met. Paige, meeting the borrower upon the street 
soon after, said to him : " I see your War Department matter 
got through all right, as the note was very promptly met." 
The debtor shook his head. " How did you pay, then ?" was 
asked. " I will tell you in confidence," was the reply. "After 
I obtained the money from you I went directly to the Presi- 
dent. I said to him : ' You know I am poor. With a stroke 
of your pen you can make me rich. I am related to you by 
the closest ties of blood and association. You cannot refuse 



ANECDOTES. 633 

me.' I then explained the matter. Grant said he could not 
do it. It would not be right. Seeing me very much cast down, 
he asked me if I was in debt. I explained that I was in debt 
$3000 — your note, and could not meet it. He at once wrote 
me his check for that amount without a word. It was that 
check which took up your note." Mr. Paige afterward 
investigated his story carefully, and, having confidential 
relations with the cashier of the bank where the note was 
paid, was able to verify its truth. 

BEATING STANTON.— Washington circles were very 
uneasy when Lee detached Early for the Valley campaign, 
and Grant had great trouble with his telegraphic orders, which 
the Secretary of War took the liberty of modifying to suit 
the desperate situation. Grant came up to look into the mat- 
ter. Finding what the trouble was, and knowing that Stan- 
ton was a very determined man, he called on Mr. Lincoln and 
took him along to the War Department. Arriving there he 
made a plain statement of the case and asked the Secretary 
if he was correct. Stanton admitted that he was, but plead 
that he was doing what he thought was best for the safety 
of Washington. Grant turned to Mr. Lincoln and said, "Well, 
Mr. President, all I have to say is that there cannot be two 
commanders of the army. I guess I shall have to resign." 
Mr. Lincoln sat for a moment nursing his knees, and then 
looking up, in a good-natured but firm voice, said, " Mr. Sec- 
retary, I guess we'd better let Grant run the machine." The 
General had no complaint to make of Stanton from that hour. 

THE GENERAL SURRENDERS.— It was early in the 
war, and in November, just after Grant had gotten his com- 
mission as brigadier. A young soldier was on guard at head- 
quarters. It was a cold, quiet duty, and the young guard, a 
mere boy of sixteen, fell asleep. The General came down the 
stairway, and, seeing the sleeping sentinel, asked, " What are 
you doing there ? " 



634 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

" I'm the guard," answered the frightened boy. 

" An excellent guard, indeed ! Do you know where you 
are ?" 

" At General Grant's headquarters, sir." 

"Stand up, then! Stand up straight! Bring your gun to a 
shoulder !" The General staid with him for fully ten minutes, 
showing him how to perform. Then he asked how long he 
had been in the army. The boy said only a few days. "Well," 
said the General, "you have been guilty of a very serious 
offence. I am General Grant, and I have power to punish 
you. I will let you off this time, but remember that all orders 
and all discipline must be strictly obeyed here." 

A few days after, the boy was put on guard on a steamboat 
loaded with provisions and ammunition, with orders to allow 
no one with lighted pipe or cigar to come near. Grant came 
rushing on to the gang-plank with his cigar in his mouth. 

" Halt !" cried the guard, bringing his gun to his shoulder. 

The General, not thinking of his cigar, was surprised, and, 
being in a hurry, was annoyed. But the boy remained firm. 
On being remonstrated with, he said, " I have had a lesson 
from General Grant himself, who says all orders must be 
obeyed to the letter. No one can approach this boat with 
a lighted cigar." 

The General smiled, threw his cigar in the river, and crossed 
the gang-plank. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



THE DYING HERO. 



IN the winter of 1883-84 General Grant had the misfortune 
to slip on an icy pavement near his home in New York 
and to badly sprain, if not dislocate, his hip joint. This was 
the beginning of a series of physical troubles. 

Up to that time he had been of robust constitution. This 
accident confined him to the house for a long time, and, as 
may well be supposed, with a man of his activity and energy, 
the confinement grew to be exceedingly irksome. 

The summer brought only partial relief. True, he could 
make out to get back and forth from the city to his cottage at 
Long Branch, but he was forced to use crutches all the time, 
and walked, even then, only with great difficulty and amid 
much pain. It was plain to those who knew him intimately 
that his system had received a shock from which recovery 
was exceedingly slow. 

He was past sixty years of age. The recuperative powers 
of youth were gone. The hardships and exposures of two 
wars, which a good constitution had hitherto withstood, were 
now coming in on the first moment of weakness, to tantalize 
him with their cruel remembrance of aches and pains. But 
he was fighting a plucky battle against his years and the 
results of his accident — fighting grimly, quietly, uncomplain- 
ingly, as he had been wont to do when the fate of armies was 
in his hands. 

That he would have come around all right in time none 
doubted. His will was unimpaired, and it was helping the 

635 



6^6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

body at all its weak points. But now it was to receive a blow 
— a sudden, fearful, shattering blow. 

The year 1884 brought the Grant-Ward failure, with its 
train of blights and woes. To General Grant it was by 
far the hardest blow of his life. He had intended to settle 
down in Washington — which city he loved — after his return 
from his "Tour Around the World," but he went to New 
York City, that he might be near his sons, who were in 
business there. The fatherly instinct weighed against all his 
previous plans for a quiet, retired life. He was a model family 
man in all his acts and prepossessions. 

Once in New York, and amid its business hurly burly, 
possessed of means supposed to be ample for every personal 
want, with something over for investment should opportunity 
offer, endowed with a name and credit which would prove a 
tower of strength to any legitimate enterprise, and which 
amid financial sharpers would naturally be sought to 
bolster up failing or doubtful enterprises, it would have 
been something wonderful if he had escaped fleecing and 
disaster. 

At an untoward and unsuspecting moment he loaned his 
name and credit to the banking-house which proved the mael- 
strom in which his fortune perished, and which literally drowned 
his peace of mind, turned his hopes into despair, impaired 
his invincible will, threw him up on the hostile shore of years 
a princely man, but, as to property in his own name, a beg- 
gar. The world hath it that he was the victim of his own 
generosity, his unsuspecting nature, his wonderfully child-like 
faith in those to whom he was attached by blood, or was 
attracted toward by the relations of friendship, politics or busi- 
ness. Let the world's verdict stand. It does him ample 
justice. Hard and cold are the laws and sentiments of trade. 
They may exclaim, " Where was his tact, his shrewdness, his 
ability to turn a sharp corner, his power to squeeze himself out 



THE DYING HERO. 637 

from among falling financial timbers, or that acumen which 
ought, in the first place, to have protected him from misuse of 
his name and credit ? " But humanity is broader far than 
these narrow, hard and cold laws. And its judgment is higher 
and quite as unerring. It is nobler to have erred on the side 
of faith in one's fellow-man, even at the cost of fortune, than to 
have succeeded at the sacrifice of every manly trait, every god- 
like gift of character. 

Grant's business failure was not his own. It was arrant, 
inexcusable abuse of his confidence and credit by men who 
knew their value, and who were without a conscience to check 
their use of them. Yet the consequences were much the same 
to him — worse, if anything. He came in for his share of criti- 
cism and denunciation at a time when his true relationship to 
the exploded firm was not understood. This galled him 
beyond precedent. It was no time for him to speak — quite too 
early for the vindication which time and abetter understanding 
of the situation alone could bring. He was physically weak, 
almost a helpless cripple. Despite his natural heroism, and 
consciousness of strict business rectitude on his part, the great 
fear seized him that a cloud was about to gather over his last 
days which would obscure the lustre of his setting sun. He 
was no longer the Grant of the olden time, but a quieter, more 
retired, more seriously thoughtful Grant — a Grant weighed 
down by a crushing inward thought which, however much it 
may have been temporarily lifted in public, pursued and ground 
him in private. 

Could that Herculean will which had for a long time been 
fighting against physical infirmity stand this new and unex- 
pected strain ? Alas, no ! Yet this flood was not all. Tu- 
multuous and dire came the announcement that he had 
been made personally liable for great amounts — as an active 
partner in a concern toward which he had all along supposed 
he only bore the relationship of special or silent partner. He 



638 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

was in the direct line of wreck, and responsible for far more 
than he was worth, though supposably responsible for only 
the amount originally placed to the credit of the firm. Finan- 
cial destruction lay directly across his path unless forsooth at 
the expense of long legal proceedings and the assertion of 
technical law points. For these he had no mind. He would 
neither quibble nor question the fate that had overtaken him. 
He stood in the breach with his all, and all was swept away — 
houses, lands, personal investments of every kind. 

This crisis in General Grant's life has been purposely dis- 
torted and very much misrepresented. It is a fatality due to 
ignorance and a keen love of the morbid that the great are 
made to suffer amid disaster out of all proportion to their 
greatness. Perhaps the exact relation of Grant to the firm of 
Grant & Ward will ever be misunderstood. There may ever 
be some who will refuse to hold him innocent for purely selfish 
or speculative reasons. It is a matter which history can 
do but little with, for history deals only with facts, not with 
opinions and prejudices. 

The best embodiment of facts connected with the affair is 
found in General Grant's own sworn testimony, taken in his 
sick room, in order that it might be used in the courts in case 
he should die. Its substance is as follows : 

" He supposed he was legally a member of the firm of 
Grant & Ward, though up to the time of the failure he regarded 
himself as only a special partner. In May, 1884, he thought 
himself as worth well on to a million dollars, but his income 
from it was small. He went into the firm because he regarded 
his partners as reputable brokers, and with a view to increasing 
his income. He was seldom consulted about the management 
of affairs and trusted implicitly to his partners. Once when 
consulted about government contracts he opposed taking 
them, and they were never taken with his knowledge. The 
profits he had been led to expect from the firm were never 



THE DYING HERO. 639 

realized and all was lost. Everything he had in the world 
went. He never knew of the firm's great indebtedness and 
supposed it sound. Every representation made to him was in 
glowing colors, and he never suspected the business worth of 
Ferdinand Ward ; on the contrary, he thought him a man of 
excellent qualities and one to be implicitly trusted. He was 
the victim of misplaced confidence, and in nothing so much as 
in finding himself fully involved with the general partners, 
when he supposed he was only a silent, or special, partner." 

When the fury of this financial storm had spent itself, and it 
was seen how disastrous it had been to him, friendship and 
gratitude came to his rescue, and kindly offered to relieve him 
from present embarrassment. This generosity was respectfully 
declined. The law must have its way, the sacrifice must be 
made and borne. A leading creditor enforced his legal rights 
not, as it turned out, to harry and oppress, but to save, as best 
he could and what he could. 

This creditor was Mr. Vanderbilt who, to his honor be it 
said, pushed his execution in order to keep others out of the 
way. He knew that General Grant owned many rare and costly 
things gathered in all parts of the world, given him by admir- 
ing citizens at home and by crowned heads abroad. The 
intrinsic value of these could have been computed, but they 
had an associative and historic value far beyond estimate. 
Why scatter them ? Why sacrifice them ? 

It was known too that the General's ultimate intention was 
to give them to the Government as a cabinet of trophies and 
mementoes. Why should this honorable intention be frus- 
trated by the intervention of merciless creditors ? 

So, while the Vanderbilt execution hung over all, they were 
rescued. They were granted in permissive trust to the 
Government, and so passed beyond danger and to their final 
destination. Then the execution went on obliterating the 
other accumulations of a lifetime, bringing its ruin, yet clari- 



640 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



fying the situation. Friends were urgent with their aid, but 
the General, and in this he was seconded by his noble-hearted 
wife, would hear to nothing but an end reached without parley 
and further obligation. 




WM. H. VANDERBILT. 

When the end came, and the law had been satisfied so far 
as the General's property was concerned, the bounty of his 
friends could assert itself. The amount of Mr. Vanderbilt's 
claim, some $150,000, was turned back in trust to Mrs. Grant, 
or otherwise secured to the use of the family. Whether this 
was Mr. Vanderbilt's personal gratuity, or the indirect way 



THE DYING HERO. 64 1 

General Grant's friends finally took to show their appreciation 
of his integrity and service, matters not. It is equally an 
evidence of the high place he occupied in the affections of 
those who commanded wealth and occupied high station, and 
who, of all others, were most indebted to him for the timely 
exercise of those powers which brought peace out of inter- 
necine war and perpetuated a glorious Union of States. 

Despite this generosity, notwithstanding these evidences 
of confidence and kindness and the general hush of adverse 
criticism, General Grant's spirits did not return. Already 
there were signs of that malady which in the end was to 
prove fatal. It first appeared in the fall of 1884, but not so 
as to be fully understood till November, or even later. Per- 
haps physicians knew, but not till orders were issued in that 
month that he should stop smoking did the family and the 
people begin to take alarm. 

Then it began to be given out that the malady was cancer 
of the tongue, which is regarded as necessarily fatal in from 
three months to two years. It was now plain that the great 
chieftain had an enemy to deal with far more subtle and 
persevering than any he had ever met before. The progress 
of the disease was watched by skillful doctors, and the condi- 
tion of the distinguished patient became a source of daily 
anxiety and news among the people. 

Since cancer is a constitutional rather than a local disease, 
the doctors relied more on the system to support their treat- 
ment than on the local treatment itself. And since the system 
had long been harried, directly by the accident to his hip 
joint and indirectly by the terrible mental strain of the 
preceding months, it may well be understood how much the 
odds were against him. 

In order to relieve his mind of worry about means on which 
to live and at the same time attest afresh its appreciation of 
his military services, the Congress (March 3d, 1885) restored 

41 



642 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

him to the rank of General of the Army, and placed him on 
the retired list, at a salary of $13,500. But even this unusual 
mark of favor, though more to his liking than any civic 
demonstration however disinterested and kind, did not serve 
to make him stronger against the disease which had laid its 
deadly grip on his throat. 

Day by day he fought his losing battle with the dread 
monster, now better, then worse, now hopeful, then despond- 
ent. Day by day the ominous bulletins went out to the 
world telling of the gains of one hour which were to be more 
than lost the next. He was, and had been, at work on his 
reminiscences of the war, one volume of which was complete. 
He had the second volume well in hand, and was most anxious 
to complete it. Amid failing strength he wrote or dictated for 
this, his last work. The doctors forbade it not till compelled 
to, for it was, in a certain sense, relaxation. It drew him 
away from thoughts of self, and especially from that anxious, 
consuming thought that his financial misfortune would prove 
a blot on an hitherto unstained and brilliant career. 

Could he have seen the heart of the people and heard the 
warm expressions of sympathy which the daily announce- 
ments of his condition drew from the great masses, he would 
have had no occasion to fear the everlasting preservation of 
a fame as untarnished, a character as unsullied, a name as 
dear, as ever hero won, or patriot left to posterity. 

By April 1st, 1885, a crisis in his malady was reached. 
A choking spell aroused his family. The doctors, were sum- 
moned in haste. They gave temporary relief, but feared that 
the death agony was on. The minister came. Prayers were 
held. " He fully realizes," said the minister, Rev. Dr. Newman, 
" the fact that each hour is but a prolongation of his sufferings, 
but the strength of his intellect and the calmness and serenity 
of his mind are wonderful." The inexorable enemy seemed 
to be knocking at his door. 




SICK IN HIS CH 



644 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

April 2d, 1885, was a day of anxiety and gloom throughout 
the United States, and even the civilized world. The General's 
death was fully expected. The paroxysms in the throat had 
followed one another so quickly that strength was gone and it 
was justly thought that the " God bless you, wife and children ! " 
which promptly followed the " Amen " of the prayer of the 
night before were his last words on earth. 

But during the day he rallied somewhat, and more assuring 
bulletins came toward evening. The patient made an effort to 
rise from his chair and to walk. The physician remonstrated 
saying: 

" You must fight for us now, General, not against us." 

" Well, I am doing the best I can," replied the patient, 
feebly. 

" Yes, and you must do as well as you once did," added the 
doctor. 

" What do you mean ? " asked the General. 

" When you had the army back of you," was the reply. 

" But I haven't the army back of me now," came the meas- 
ured response, as he closed his eyes and rested his head on the 
back of his chair. 

All day long a dense crowd of people, numbering thousands 
of young and old, rich and poor, gathered about the residence 
to catch words of hope. Old friends, officers of Army and 
State, dignitaries of every nation, called to pay respect and 
tender sympathy, and learn joyfully of the favorable change in 
his condition which became more manifest as the evening 
approached. 

" The General is picking up wonderfully," was the news 
given out at 5 P. M. by Ex-Senator Chaffee. 

" He is a man of wonderful vitality. Despite his low condi- 
tion, he is now able to walk across the room," was the glad 
announcement made by Mr. Field at 9.15 P.M., and the 
surging masses, breathing sighs of relief, melted away and dis- 



646 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

appeared in the night. A day had been gained for the sufferer. 
The beloved and admired of the nation had not yet fallen. 

Meanwhile, the religious bodies throughout the land, wher- 
ever they were in convention, sent forth their resolutions of 
prayer for the great man's recovery, of regret at his intense 
suffering, yet of resignation to the ordering of Him who doeth 
all things well. Leaders and members of every faith felt that 
this struggle was as much an exemplification of true Christian 
fortitude as of old Roman heroism. Legislatures, wherever in 
session, passed their resolutions of regret and respect and sent 
their prayers for recovery. North and South, East and West, 
without regard to politics or opinions, the expressions of sym- 
pathy and sorrow, and the petitions of hope, came sponta- 
neously up out of the hearts of those who hung in suspense 
over the eagerly sought and swiftly passing news. It was clear 
that Grant belonged to the nation, the people, as no other man 
ever did. 

On April 3d, Good Friday, he rallied sufficiently to answer 
a special request for his autograph, and when the doctor left 
him at 10 p. m., it was with the assurance that he would sur- 
vive until another day and the remark " He is the most marvel- 
ous man I ever met." The eve of Good Friday just twenty 
years before had brought deep sorrow to the nation in the 
assassination of President Lincoln. In this year of our Lord 
1885, it was not a day of tears but, by providential decree, one 
of thanks for the temporary delivery of our greatest and best 
from the grasp of death. 

Yet what mi^ht the hours brinsr ? Would the chimes of 
Easter Sunday peal gladfully or muffled ? In telling of Him 
that had arisen, would they toll too a requiem for one just 
passed away ? Happily, no. The silent, uncomplaining suf- 
ferer was still fighting his unequal battle — not for himself, but 
for his doctors, his family, all who loved him. The sun of 
Easter Sunday was bright. The family, the friends, tried to 



THE DYING HERO. 647 

lift the old General up out of the shadows of the grave, tried 
to shake off, momentarily at least, the sad, settled conviction 
that further waiting by the roadside for the final summons 
was only a useless lengthening of pain. They recalled only 
pleasant themes, supported him in his strong moments to the 
window that he might feel the glow of the bright day, 
redoubled that deep solicitude which had all along sustained 
a sinking spirit and soothed a pain-stricken body. Theirs was 
no easy task. Said General Badeau, on leaving the house : 
" General Grant does not want to live, suffering as he now 
does and knowing that he cannot get better. The trouble is 
not so much with the cancer as with general debility. He is 
entirely broken down." 

Said another equally as intimate, and amid despondency not 
unmixed with a tinge of resentment : " The man who trapped 
General Grant into that ruinous financial affair is morally 
responsible for his condition to-day. But for the shock of 
failure at his time of life and the discovery when too late that 
his name and credit had been shamefully abused, he might 
have withstood the attack of disease for years. He is not 
demonstrative. Secret grief has broken him down. He told 
General Fry he had not slept for a month after the failure. I, 
myself, have seen him sitting in his parlor with his head sunk 
on his breast, a picture of despondency and despair." 

By evening there was some little response to the wishes 
and efforts of those who had striven to throw around him the 
sunshine of the Easter Sabbath. " I wish," said Dr. Shrady 
in his hearing, " he could be induced to say something for us 
to write which would show his mental condition; our bulletins 
are getting monotonous." 

"Say" said the General, "that I am very comfortable, and that 
I am grateful for the sympathy that has been expressed for me." 

" Well, now," said the doctor, cheerfully, " we ought to 
have, General, something to wind up with." 




TENDER CARE. 



THE DYING HERO. 649 

" Say, then," was the reply, " that I desire the good will of 
all, whether heretofore friends or not. It is enough." 

" Yes," said General Badeau, " it 1s a good Easter blessing 
for the people of this country." 

There was respite for a few hours, perhaps days. Who 
could tell the depth and tenacity of that will and the despera- 
tion of the struggle ? 

Monday came with the old General still fighting the grim, 
unyielding foe. Tuesday came and with it an alarming hem- 
orrhage in the throat. The disease had eaten through a small 
artery. It was a new but not unexpected complication. Life 
ebbed to the last under the loss of blood. " All might be 
aver in an hour " ran the bulletins. By midnight of Tues- 
day, April 7th, the traces of blood disappeared, and anxious 
hours were passed in coaxing and waiting for a rally 
from the extreme exhaustion. It came slowly ; so slowly 
as to bring no hope with it. The time for rapid rallies had 
passed. 

During the early evening hours, as he lay in his chair near 
the window, Dr. Douglas and Rev. Dr. Newman being the 
only ones present, he turned toward Dr. Douglas and smiled. 
A cheerful word was ventured about his friends. 

" All the people seem to be your friends at present," said 
Dr. Newman. 

" Yes," whispered the General, " and I have many friends 
on the other side." 

" Yes," repeated Newman, " and they are waiting for you, 
General — they are waiting for you." 

" So they are," whispered the General ; " I wish they would 
come." 

Then there was a long silence, broken by another whisper, 
" I wish they may not have long to wait." 

When Dr. Newman left the house he said to a friend, " The 
General is hopeful of the future which to him seems full of 



65O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

light. There will be no death-bed scene when he dies, but a 
peaceful passing away." 

Dr. Douglas said, when leaving, " We cannot sustain him 
with stimulants longer. Beside, he wants to go. All his 
thoughts now are of the future." 

It was well said by the poet — 

" I think the April stars have never shot 

O'er the dumb city a light of such cold spell 
As now at midnight, when all is not well — 

"When lingering pain is our loved hero's lot ! 

' Let us have peace,' he said, while hate was hot 
Still in the land where he stood sentinel 
And guardian of its peace, whate'er befell — 

He that now sighs for peace yet wins it not ! 

" O thou in whom such calm and power agree, 
If immortality may ever dawn 

On mortals, of thyself it now were true 
That the great spirit of Lincoln looks for thee 
Where files of shadowy soldiery are drawn, 
Waiting their mighty Captain's last review ! " 



And again :- 



" Only waiting, with the shadows 
Settling round so dark and grim ; 
For the utterance of the message 
That shall give release to him. 
All the anguish to be over — 

All the suffering to be past : 
After all these weeks of hoping 
Blessed rest and peace at last. 

" Only waiting, and the battle 

Will be over evermore ; 
Waiting, waiting, and the weary 

Days of watching will be o'er. 
Calm and bravely, as a soldier 

Should face death, so doth he stand- 
Soon to meet the great Commander 

Of the undiscovered land." 



THE DYING HERO. 65 I 

On Wednesday, the 8th of April, he was holding on to the 
feeble thread of life amid the quietude of weakness and 
exhaustion. There was a lull in the violence of his symptoms, 
but no perceptible rally, no recovery of lost strength. A little 
more mental brightness, allusion to the battle of Shiloh whose 
anniversary had just passed (April 7th), and in which battle 
his physician, Dr. Douglas, had participated, a request at one 
time for nourishment, were the only things on which hope 
hung for a continuance of the struggle. After all, the very 
quietude enforced by sheer weakness and the restfulness of 
that suspension between life and death might postpone disso- 
lution for other anxious hours — for days, if a nation's prayers 
could lengthen the time. 

The General's home was more than ever the scene and cen- 
tre of many a touching incident. Sympathetic telegrams were 
coming from all parts of the country, letters and resolutions 
from political, religious and social bodies. These were from 
all classes and grades of men, and without distinction of party, 
sect, or past differences of opinion. Confederate joined his 
token with Federal soldier. "I love the old General," said 
one who had rung the doorbell to inquire about his condition, 
"though I fought against him and surrendered to him at 
Appomattox. May God spare his life for many days ! " He 
departed with tears in his eyes. One of the richest floral 
tokens of respect was sent up to the General's room by Gen- 
eral Rosser, of the Confederate army, who was wounded at 
Winchester. The Southern newspapers were profoundly 
moved by his suffering and expected death, and their sym- 
pathy was expressed in columns of tribute to the great and 
manly qualities of one whom they had learned to love as a 
friend. 

Even foreign majesty was touched with the situation, and 
Queen Victoria thus expressed the warmth of her interest and 
feeling : 



652 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

"Aix les Baines, April 8th, 1885. — To Mrs. General Grant, New York:— 
The Queen, who feels deeply for you in your anxieties, commands me to inquire 
after General Grant. 

" (Signed) Dowager Marchioness of Ely." 

"April 9th, 1885. — To Marchioness of Ely, Aix les Baines: — Mrs. Grant 
thanks the Queen for her sympathy, and directs me to say General Grant is no 
better. 

" Colonel Grant." 

The light of April 9th, the anniversary of Appomattox, 
broke on a people prepared to solemnize with tears a day 
which twenty years before their chieftain had made joyful and 
glorious with final victory and surrender. Dying to-day, his 
death, his final victory and surrender, would hallow an event 
which had for twenty years stood out in martial and political 
history as the greatest of all in its results to mankind. Every 
memory of the old times of war and heroism would have 
become sweetly and solemnly impressive. The satisfaction of 
victory would have been mellowed by grief. The lessons of a 
glorious epoch would have been read o'er in the refined light of 
national bereavement, when the heart was without resentment 
and the factional tongue was dumb. 

But, 

" The Great Commander 
Of the undiscovered land," 

did not demand the old hero's sword. He had respite — unex- 
pected, surprising, thankful respite. 

Amid this quiet waiting, this constitutional suspense, this 
hovering between life and death, lasting for many weary, 
anxious days, there came a compulsory change in the treat- 
ment. Use of opiates was relaxed and, whenever possible, 
remitted. They had partially lost their power of soothing 
and sustaining, or in his reduced and diseased condition had 
become a source of aggravation. The rest of apathy and 
prostration must come to his rescue, or nothing. Gradually 



THE DYING HERO. 



653 



it came. There was still physical power in reserve, whose 
presence had not been suspected, and back of it was that 
wonderful force of will, which in this desperate strait seemed 
almost super-human. As the days passed the General came 
back to us — to his family, friends, the nation. By April 15th, 
the bulletins told cheerful stories. " The General was better ; 
was improving;" " He is feeling better to-day than for weeks," 




REPORTERS ON THE LOOKOUT. 



was the grateful announcement of his physician as he left the 
bedside. " He does not require so much morphia now. Only 
six grains were injected to-day instead of the customary ten. 
If he continues to improve I believe he will get out again," 
was another welcome announcement. 

On the 1 6th, Dr. Newman gave it out that "his condition 



654 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

had greatly changed for the better. He is buoyed up by faith. 
The prayers of the people of the whole country, of Protest- 
ants, of Catholics, of Hebrews, have been offered up for him 
and they are being answered. He believes he will now get 
well. He feels, and I feel, that the supplications of so many 
people for such consummation will be answered. To-day as I 
parted from him he pressed my hand and said : ' Thrice have 
I been in the valley of the shadow of death, and thrice have I 
come out again.'" The physicians took advantage of the 
improvement to make a critical examination of the disease in 
the tongue and throat, an opportunity which had been denied 
them for some time. They found it less irritated, the sup- 
puration easier and not so likely to choke the patient, the 
danger from further hemorrhage reduced. But the diminished 
intensity of the disease was occasioned by its general spread 
backward into the throat. This of itself might make it more 
treatable ; at any rate, it would for a time generalize the pain 
and free the patient from those paroxysms of coughing and 
choking which had threatened death at any moment. 

Each day now added to his general strength and increased 
the hope of, at least, temporary recovery. By April 27th, his 
sixty-fourth birthday, he was well enough to take a carriage 
ride in the park, and to enter into the spirit which pervaded 
the day, for the country had largely agreed to celebrate his 
anniversary. Flags were hoisted on private and public build- 
ings in New York and other cities. Grand Army posts sent 
their resolutions of gratitude that the old hero's life had been 
spared. Congratulatory telegrams and letters came from all 
sources. Floral tributes, without number, were sent by 
admiring friends. 

All day there was a surge of carriages around his house on 
Sixty-sixth street, and the glad visitors left their rich tokens 
of esteem and warm words of congratulation at the door, or 
delivered them in person in the reception-room. But it was 




THE AFTERNOON WALK. 



656 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

not until the afternoon that the scene in the street took the 
shape of a popular demonstration. The hour in which he had 
been used to taking an afternoon walk was at hand. It was 
thought that he might appear. The crowd became dense, and 
anxious to assure themselves of the invalid's convalescence, as 
well as to make known their thanks and give fresh evidence 
of their appreciation. They were not disappointed. The old 
General appeared, closely wrapped, and in the company of 
several friends. The crowd broke out in lusty cheers and 
congratulatory acclaims, which the General, leaning heavily on 
his cane, returned with raised hat and a cheerful bow. He 
walked an entire block and returned. Returning life was 
establishing itself in his veins. That walk, without the hard- 
ship of extraordinary fatigue, was immunity from death for 
many days at least. In his own household the day was one 
of thankful rejoicing, and the General was bright and happy 
as any member. Said Rev. Louis C. Tiffany who called in 
the afternoon : " General Grant came down to the reception- 
room to see me. I am surprised at the improvement he has 
made since I saw him two weeks ago. He seems to be per- 
fectly satisfied with the prospect of clinging to life for months 
to come, though he has no hope of recovery." 

In the evening the entire family ate the anniversary dinner, 
to which many of the General's closest friends were invited. 
Sixty-three wax candles were placed around the table, and the 
party did their best to make the occasion agreeable to the sick 
man. After dinner, devotional exercises were held, and these 
closed the home celebration of a day, which for nearly a month 
no member of the family, nor any other person, had expected 
the General would live to see. 

As strength returned the General again found employment 
for his mind, and consequent forgetfulness of pain, by giving 
as much time as his strength permitted to the preparation 
of his memoirs, which he was anxious to complete. His mind 



THE DYING HERO. 657 

was clear and memory unimpaired. He dictated with facility 
for sometimes two and three hours a day, and frequently gave 
an hour or two to the arrangement of his data. He kept up 
his terse, perspicuous and direct style, and seldom amended 
what had been committed to paper. But while this work was 
permitted by his physicians as a relaxation, disease was not 
relinquishing its hold, and it was only a question of time as to 
when it would reassert itself and again prostrate its victim. 

The time came with the approach of warm weather. The 
heat of early June conspired with the disease to undo all that 
had been gained. Literary work became irksome, fatiguing 
and dangerous. Appetite failed. Cheerfulness departed. 
Strength flagged. Weakness, profuse secretion, difficult ex- 
pectoration, gradually hardening nodules in the neck, almost a 
total loss of voice, increasing pain, prostration and rapid wast- 
ing — all these told a sad story, and admonished doctors and 
friends that if the patient were to survive the summer or even 
avoid speedy collapse there must be instant departure for a 
place where the temperature was lower and the air purer. 
Delay of even a week might make removal dangerous, if not 
impossible. Mr. Drexel's cottage on Mt. McGregor, in the 
northern part of New York State, was selected, and hither 
the General was moved on June 16th, 1885. 

He stood the trip very well considering his weakness and 
the heat. The immediate effects of the change were not assur- 
ing. Dr. Douglas remained in charge. After a rest of a day 
or two the General tested his strength by a walk in company 
with his faithful servant Harrison up the steep road to the 
highest point of the mountain, some three hundred feet away. 
He reached his cottage thoroughly exhausted, and was for a 
time despondent over the result of the trip. His condition 
was his own measure of what he had lost in strength and 
vitality. He called for paper and wrote some family memo- 
randa, in which he confessed that he found himself losing 
42 



658 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

ground again. His voice seemed permanently gone. Yet, said 
the doctor, " He is as well as any man can be who has such a 
deadly enemy grasping at his throat. He is steadily following 
the course marked out for the disease. It is constantly de- 
pressing and gradually wearing away the vital powers. His 
tendency is to grow weaker and weaker every day. To-morrow- 
he will not be as strong as he is to-day, for the disease will have 
progressed some. Our hope of benefit from this change is to 
prolong his life." 

By June 19th, he had begun to experience some benefit from 
the cooler, fresher air of the mountain. He got to sleeping, 
grew more cheerful, and suffered less pain. He found enjoy- 
ment w T ith his family on the piazzas, and took great interest in 
the play of his grandchildren about the cottage. His fondness 
for children was always a marked characteristic. Hundreds of 
letters came to him from children from all over the land ex- 
pressing hope that he might recover, and the perusal of these 
was always a source of comfort. 

Though he could not converse except by making his thoughts 
and wishes known on paper, he began to turn his attention to 
his book again, and often devoted as much as an hour or two 
a day to its revision. On the 23d of June, he announced that 
he had about completed it, and should not have it on his mind 
any more. But even this light work had grown taxing, and 
was followed by painful reaction. His weight had been re- 
duced ten pounds in two weeks — from one hundred and forty 
to one hundred and thirty pounds. 

On June 24th, the doctors had a consultation, and announced 
that there had been no marked change in the disease, but that 
his system was in a better general condition than when he left 
New York. On the 29th, his quietude and disinclination to 
leave his room alarmed the doctor and the family. In answer 
to their fears he wrote, " Do as I do ; I take it quietly. I give 
myself not the least concern. If I knew that the end was to 



66o 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



be to-morrow, I would try and get rest in the meantime. As 
long as there is no progress of the disease there's hope." On 
the 30th, Dr. Douglas said : 




DR. DOUGLAS. 



" His life has been prolonged by the invigorating air here 
instead of the great heat of New York. The disease has pro- 



• 



THE DYING HERO. 66l 

gressed in the natural way. As I have said before, his condi- 
tion is one of increasing debility. The General was likely to 
die at any time in New York, and had he remained there in- 
stead of coming here he would in all human probability have 
expired before this. His present weakness is the natural result 
of the disease. He is each day less strong, and though the step 
from day to day is scarcely perceptible, the aggregate of four- 
teen days becomes noticeable. 

" Two weeks ago General Grant left the city, and if he was 
in New York to-day he could not be moved here. His 
strength to-day is not equal to such a journey. Now, if you 
ask me when the end will proably be, I cannot tell. No one 
can tell. He grows weaker and weaker, and at last the point 
of exhaustion will be reached. That is all, and nobody can 
say when that shall be." 

The General had by this time thoroughly studied his own 
condition, and there was no longer any need for the doctors to 
conceal their opinions. So when the above results of a two 
weeks' sojourn were made known to him, he replied by handing 
Dr. Douglas the following note : 

"The atmosphere here enables me to live in comparative 
comfort while I am being treated or while nature is taking its 
course with my disease. I have no idea that I should have 
been able to come here now if I remained in the city. It is 
doubtful, indeed, whether I would have been alive. Now I 
would be much better able to move back than to come at the 
time I did. U. S. Grant, June 30th, 1885." 

All the while his quiet mountain home was the centre of in- 
cidents calculated to cheer and inspire. Letters flowed in from 
all parts of the country containing sentiments of affection and 
prayers for his recovery. Some of them were very touching 
indeed, such, for instance, as this from Rockbridge Baths, Va. 



662 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

"Dear Sir: I hope you will allow one who, when a boy, 
laid down his arms at Appomattox and pledged allegiance to 
the Union, to express his warmest sympathy for you in your 
suffering. I have watched your movements from the hour you 
gave me my horse and sword, and told me to 'go home and 
assist in making a crop.' I have been proud to see the nation 
do you honor, and now, dear General, in the hour of your pain, 
I weep that so brave, so magnanimous a soul must suffer as 
you do. My prayer to God daily is that you may be restored 
to perfect health, and be assured that I am not the only ex- 
confederate who sends his prayers daily to the Throne of Grace 
for the restoration of the grandest, the noblest, the bravest sol- 
dier and the purest statesman who ever graced the annals of 
history. May the God who overlooked you in battle and who 
has brought you thus far give you grace to meet whatever He 
has in store for you, and may he restore you to health is the 
fervent prayer of one who, at fifteen years of age, entered the 
lists against you and accepted the magnanimous terms you 
accorded us at Appomattox." 

And visitors came up the mountain side, as if on a pilgrim- 
age, to see the old hero, take him by the hand, and speak a 
cheering word. Among those of July 8th, was Rev. Father 
Didier, of St. Vincent's, Baltimore. Mounting the steps of the 
veranda and passing his card he said, " I am a Catholic clergy- 
man, General Grant. We are all praying for you." 

The General replied by writing on a pad: 

" Yes, I know, and I feel very grateful to the Christian people, 
of the land for their prayers in my behalf. There is no sect 
or religion, as shown in the Old or the New Testament, to 
which this does not apply — Catholics, Protestants and Jews ; 
and all the good people of the nation, of all politics as well as 
religions, and all nationalities, seem to have united in wishing or 



THE DYING HERO. 663 

praying for my improvement. I am a great sufferer all the 
time, but the facts I have related are compensation for much 
of it. All that I can do is to pray that the prayers of all those 
good people may be answered so far as to have us all meet in 
another and better world. I cannot speak even in a whisper. 

"U. S. Grant, July 8th, 1885." 

And on the same day, when twenty editors of the Mexican 
Associated Press called to pay their respects, he wrote them 
the following response : 

" My great interest in Mexico dates back to the war between 
the United States and that country. My interest was increased 
when four European monarchies attempted to set up their 
institutions on this continent, selecting Mexico, a territory 
adjoining. It was an outrage on human rights, for a foreign 
nation to attempt to transfer her institutions and her rulers to 
the territory of a civilized people without their consent. They 
were fearfully punished for their crime. I hope Mexico may 
soon begin an upward and prosperous departure. She has all 
the conditions ; she has the people ; she has the soil ; she has 
the climate and she has the minerals. The conquest of Mex- 
ico will not be any easy task in the future." 

On July 1 2th, Rev. Dr. Newman held services at the hotel, 
on the top of the mountain. He preached from Matthew v. 1-8, 
and in the course of his sermon said : " Oh, illustrious sufferer 
in yonder cottage ! What a lesson thou art teaching to the 
warriors and statesmen of the worlgl and to the youth of that 
country thou hast saved, by finding within thyself at this 
supreme moment those elements of repose and happiness 
which to-day excite the admiration of mankind and fill the 
hearts of angels with delight." 

That evening there was a partial return of the General's 
voice, and he asked several questions audibly, to the great 



664 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

surprise and delight of his family. The next day his voice 
was still clearer, his spirits brighter and his whole system 
stronger. A medical review of his month's residence on the 
mountain was made public. It contained the following : 

"All accidental infiltration has subsided. The swelling on 
the neck has subsided. No new development of the cancer 
lumps. The affected parts inside look better. They are not 
healing, but give off no bloody sputa after treatment. Pain 
and the mucous secretions have abated. The only discomfort 
now is in the main sore at the base of the tongue. The patient 
can now close his lips and breathe through the nasal passages. 
The patient can now treat his throat himself with a gargle. A 
desire for food has set in. The voice is clearer and stronger. 
The patient rests better. The system assimilates food and 
derives more strength from it. The spirits of the patient assist 
the treatment more readily." 

There were not wanting those who believed that the doctors 
had been all along mistaken in their diagnosis, or that cancer 
was a curable disease, after all. Their wishes with respect to 
General Grant were the parents of their thoughts. Dr. Douglas 
was not one of them. He regarded the condition as depicted 
in the above review as only one of those strange phases of 
temporary improvement that is characteristic of cancerous dis- 
eases, for whose continuance no one could vouch. 

It was now deemed advisable to secure for the General all 
the freedom from excitement and all the absolute rest possible, 
in order to continue the favorable symptoms. He was, as 
nearly as may be, denied access to the. outside world. Reso- 
lutions of respect and sympathy passed by political associa- 
tions, grand army veterans, religious and civic bodies, and all 
communications calculated to excite or disturb, were withheld 
from his notice for the time being. And the precaution seemed 
wise. It gave the General mental rest. It secured him from 
intrusive visits by the simply curious, and limited interviews to 



THE DYING HERO. 665 

those whose presence would prove a pleasure and profit. It 
would make interesting and valuable history, if it were possible 
to print the well-studied, clear-cut and ripe sentiments which 
the old General gave out on his written sheets while conversing 
with some of those who were favored with audiences during 
this period of seclusion. They all show the wonderful clear- 
ness of his mind, his remarkable memory of men and events 
and his profound interest in the country and its institutions. 
Weakened by disease, racked by pain, bowed by misfortune, 
facing inevitable death, he has forgotten nothing nor lost a 
particle of that command of situations which made him great 
in affairs of war and state. As an instance — General Buckner 
who surrendered Fort Donelson to him, called on him to renew 
their old acquaintance. He expressed himself as deeply affected 
with General Grant's warmth of friendship, breadth of views, 
and earnestness of convictions. The curtain of privacy was, 
of course, drawn over most of the interview, but one part re- 
ferring to the war he made public by exhibiting the slip of 
paper on which Grant had written the following: 

" I have witnessed since my sickness just what I wished to 
see ever since the war — harmony and good feeling between 
the sections. I have always contended that if there had been 
nobody left but the soldiers we would have had peace in a 

year. and are the only two that I know who do 

not seem to be satisfied on the Southern side. We have some 
on ours who failed to accomplish as much as they wished, or 
who did not get warmed up to the fight until it was all over, 
who have not had quite full satisfaction. The great majority, 
too, of those who did not go into the war have long since 
grown tired of the long controversy. We may now well look 
forward to a perpetual peace at home, and a national strength 
that will screen us against any foreign complication. I believe, 
myself, that the war was worth all it cost us, fearful as that was. 
Since it was over I have visited every state in Europe, and a 



666 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

number in the East. I know, as I did not before, the value of 
our inheritance." 

"Thus," said Buckner, "General Grant's noble sentiments 
.show that he has the good of the country at heart in the last 
moments of his life." 

The illustrious patient held his own amid this greater rest 
till July 20th. On the afternoon of that day, he took an airing 
in his bath chair, which was pushed about the mountain roads 
by a servant. The route was rough, and his strength was 
taxed more than he expected, or rather he had not suspected 
his real condition before starting, for notwithstanding all the 
apparently favorable symptoms of the preceding week there 
had been a gradual sapping of vitality and an undermining of 
the resistive and recuperative forces. He retired that night and 
rested seemingly well. But it turned out to be the rest of weak- 
ness, not of recuperation. On the 2 1st, he was still drowsy 
and restful. It was the quietude of enfeeblement The pulse 
lost its volume, and then grew shaky and frequent, as in fever. 
Lethargy, under the circumstances, was by no means a safe 
symptom. It was rather a barometer which indicated the de- 
gree of prostration. Rallying remedies, as spirits or morphine, 
would prove of little avail, except momentarily. A spasm of 
hiccoughing set in, which harassed and weakened him. Then 
came artificial sleep and rest, but to be followed by a renewal 
of the spasm. At length the fitful, dreamy, nervous rest of 
sheer exhaustion set in, with its grave uncertainties, incoherent 
requests, mental wanderings, sudden starts, pitiable and plead- 
ing expression of the deeply rolling eyes. The day was 
breathless, even on that mountain height, and the thoroughly 
alarmed family contributed to the comfort of the sufferer by 
keeping fans in constant motion by his sick chair. Dr. Doug- 
las saw in the patient's condition all the symptoms of a rapidly 
sinking and dying man. His son, U. S. Grant, Jr., was tele- 
graphed for. Dr. Newman arrived during the evening and, at 



THE DYING HERO. 667 

Mrs. Grant's request, family prayers were held. At 10 p.m. the 
sufferer looked about him and, seeing his daughter Nellie, asked 
for paper. He wrote some brief instructions, addressing them to 
different members of the family. By eleven o'clock his pulse 
was steadier, and his mind clear. He requested Dr. Douglas to 
say to his family ,that they should all retire now since there was 
no use of their sitting up longer. By midnight the cottage was 
quiet, and the dying man was left alone with his watchers. At 
1 a. m. of the 2 2d, the rally was maintained, and there was every 
indication that he would witness the sunrise of another day. 
And that 21st of July, 1 88 5, had been a day of anxiety for 
the whole country, for word had been flashed throughout the 
land that " Grant was dying." Again eager throngs crowded 
around the bulletin boards, and this time with sadder hearts 
than ever, for now the news were ominously impressive in form 
and utterly without the inspiration of a hope. 

What is that sad rumor flying? 
Grant, the sturdy soldier, dying ? 
Grant, the grim, yet glorious Mars, 
Saviour of the Stripes and Stars — 
Grant, the warrior, dying ? 

Grant, whose cool, intrepid bearing 
Stimulated deeds of daring 
In the hottest of the field, 
And whose cry was "Never yield!" 
Grant, unconquered, dying? 

Grant, whose manly faults are hidden 
'Neath the cloak that waves unbidden. 
Royal robe of purple dye — 
In the loom of memory — 

Grant, the hero, dying? 

Ah! 'tis worth a nation's sighing! 
On Truth's wings the rumors flying. 
Softly, friends ! a hero falls 
When the unwelcome angel calls- 
Grant, at work, is dying. 



668 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

The gray tint of morning began to creep up the horizon 
shortly after three o'clock. The General had been resting for 
an hour, but now came a coughing spell, signal for eveiy attend- 
ant to make vigilance closer. The doctor was awakened. 
He cleansed the patient's throat, and checked the spasm. A 
little liquid food was taken, and at four o'clock the General 
requested a pad and pencil. He wrote with great difficulty a 
brief communication for his family, which was passed to his 
son Fred. He then composed himself, by placing his elbows 
on the arms of his chair, and supporting his chin on both his 
hands. The dawn broke into the splendors of a new day. 
Doctors Sands and Shrady were telegraphed for, not with a 
thought that aid could now be rendered, but that the respon- 
sibilities of the closing stages of the case might be shared by 
those who had participated in its beginnings. During all that 
night of suffering and extreme prostration the patient's mind 
remained firm and unclouded. On inquiring the time, he was 
told it was one o'clock. Shortly afterward it struck twelve. 
He called attention to the fact that the clock was wrong an 
hour. Later on, observing the anxiety of those about him, 
he wrote, " I do not want anybody to be distressed on my 
account." 

And now the bright sun of July 22d, was fully up. Its rays 
entered a home utterly devoid of cheer and hope. The end 
which all had striven so heroically to postpone was evidently 
at hand, and its approach must now be counted by sad hours. 
The hypodermic injections have lost all their power. There 
is no rally, no reaction. Exhaustion is sheer. The pulse 
flickers and cannot be counted. Respiration is short and quick. 
Failure is steady and rapid. Recuperation is impossible, for 
nourishment can no longer be taken. The hours pass in 
waiting for the last, dread summons. He would speak, but 
cannot ; would write, but the pallid hands refuse to hold or 
guide the pencil. He has written his last word. 



THE DYING HERO. 669 

The absent son, Jesse, arrives. The physicians come. There 
is a little rally, a last desperate attempt to beat back the grim 
monster. And then the weakness of death settles upon him 
again. At 8 p.m., he is asked if he would not exchange his 
chair for the bed. He starts as if to comply, but volition is 
thwarted by refusal of the body to move. He is carried ten- 
derly to the bed, and laid therein. It is General Grant's death 
bed. He is free from pain now. Disease has done its worst. 
He is resigned. Strength of will can do no more. And that 
resignation has about it the true composure of the Christian, 
the happy beam that lights the dark valley, the sweet peace 
that bridges the grave and opens in advance beatific visions of 
Paradise. 

The night wears away amid watching and the administra- 
tions that smooth the pathway to the grave. Once only there 
is answer to the anxious quests after his welfare. "What will 
you have, General ? " Water," is the feeble, almost inaudible 
reply. It was his last word. The breath shortens and thickens, 
and gurgles in his throat. The pulse beat is only a tremble. 
Morning dawns, and the physicians and family are called by 
the watchers. Sunrise in nature, sunset with a mortal ! The 
doctors come. The family move mournfully toward the death 
couch and gather in solemn tearful group about the expiring 
hero. 

Around the patient's mouth gathers the purplish tinge, 
nature's signal of dissolution. The doctor lifts a hand; it is 
cold. Respiration quickens still more, and becomes noiseless. 
Death is painless and serene — an ebbing away of life. Now 
the eyes close. A peaceful expression deepens in the strong 
lines of the face. There is a fuller, deeper breath, as if relief 
had come to long and anxious tension. It is the exhalation 
of a human soul. The doctor steps a little nearer, stoops to 
listen, turns away with the announcement that "All is over." 
Then the sad realization forces itself on the reluctant hearts of 



67O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the assembled mourners that General Grant is dead. It was 
eight minutes past eight, on the morning of Thursday, July 
23d, 1885, that a family stood bereft of its beloved head, and 
a nation was called upon to mourn the loss of its most illus- 
trious and endeared citizen. 

Heroic to the last, he fought his final battle with the same 
unquailing courage, the same calm, grim fortitude which shed 
their fadeless lustre on his whole extraordinary career. For 
months the nation had hung over his bedside and sadly watched 
his resolute, unmurmuring struggle, and the silent foot-fall of 
the unseen conqueror came as he and all would have had it, 
not with poignant shock as when a Lincoln or a Garfield 
fell, but as a messenger bearing a crown of full glory and 
beckoning ripened life to a land of light and fruition. As 
his achievements proved him to be a master of men, so 
his weary illness and heroic death proved that he was master 
of himself. The great captain, in all his career, dispatched 
but one flag of truce to the enemy and that was when he 
sent his great white soul from the mountain top to the angel 
of death. 

The sad news were flashed throughout the land, and by nine 
o'clock the bells were tolling everywhere. The one theme of 
a nation and the world was the passing away of him who had 
fought a good fight, had finished his course, had kept the faith. 
Humanity had but one heart for the occasion, and that was 
now bowed and broken in grief. Tongue and pen had but one 
word, and that was sympathy over the great loss, and praise of 
the virtues that had made his life noble and illustrious. For 
the afflicted family it was the beginning of condolence, un- 
limited by station, creed, color, nationality, or condition, and 
as warm as the utmost measure of affection and deepest sense 
of loss could make it. For the press, the pulpit, the forum, it 
was the occasion of eulogy, strong, full and beautiful, commen- 
surate with a great love, a towering, fame, and irreparable loss; 



672 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

fitting for one whose monument was a preserved Union ; whose 
sepulchre, the hearts of his countrymen ; whose epitaph, the 
gratitude of sixty millions of people. 

What Tennyson wrote of Wellington, America may read 
of Grant: 

" Mourn, for to us he seems the last, 
Remembering all his greatness in the past. 
No more in soldier fashion will he greet 
With lifted hand the gazer in the street. 
O friends, our chief state-oracle is mute ; 
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood, 
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute, 
Whole in himself, a common good. 
Mourn for the man of amplest influence, 
Yet clearest of ambitious crime, 
Our greatest yet with least pretence, 
Great in council and great in war, 
Foremost captain of his time, 
Rich in saving common sense, 
And, as the greatest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime, 
-x- ***** * 

On God and God-like men we build our trust. 

Hush, the Dead March wails in the people's ears : 

The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears : 

The black earth yawns : the mortal disappears ; 

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; 

He is gone who seemed so great. 

Gone ; but nothing can bereave him 

Of the force he made his own 

Being here, and we believe him 

Something far advanced in State, 

And that he wears a truer crown 

Than any wreath that man can weave him. 

Speak no more of his renown, 

Lay your earthly fancies down, " 

And in the vast cathedral leave him, 

God accept him, Christ receive him." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 



AFTER the death of General Grant a plaster cast of his 
face was taken, when the body was given into the hands 
of the undertaker, who embalmed it It was then draped in 
the national flag and placed in repose in the parlor of the 
cottage in which he died, on Mt. McGregor, under a guard of 
comrades from one or more of the Posts of the Grand Army 
of the Republic, which was afterward increased by a regular 
army guard, who patrolled the grounds and protected the 
cottage till the day of the funeral. 

Meanwhile the cities of the country were draped in mourning, 
and all the flags on buildings and ships hung at half mast. 
The press, at home and abroad, teemed with expressions of 
sorrow, with sad obituary, and exalted eulogy. The character 
and career of the dead patriot was the theme of universal 
mention and analysis, of the most eloquent prose and touching 
poetry. Not in all history has fame been dealt with so kindly 
or memory so tenderly. It was worth death to find a senti- 
ment so unanimous, exuberant, and exquisite respecting the 
grandeur and solidity of a mortal character. Party, sect, 
section, country, levelled their lines and voiced the over- 
whelming regret and general praise. Let a few newspaper 
extracts answer as samples of all. 

" He took upon himself, at the solicitation of the people, the highest civil re- 
sponsibilities, and bore them with the same plain and unselfish fidelity which had 
distinguished him in the field. 7 ' — St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 

" Let us speak of our great chieftain only as the soldier whose fame has not a 
spot to mar its brilliancy. If his civil career seems to invite criticism, let us bury 
43 67? 



674 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

it out of sight and honor him as the great captain of the age; as the devoted leadei 
who led the armies of the Union to triumph, striking the fetters from the slave, 
showing the magnanimity of the hero in the hour of victory as he showed the 
courage of the hero in the day of battle, and restoring to us the American republic 
stronger, more honored, and more glorious than it was when handed down to us 
by our revolutionary sires." — New York World. 

" No one man of our history so distinctively emphasized his individuality in war 
and in peace, in the field and in statesmanship, as did General Grant. He had 
none of the ornate characteristics of Clay ; none of the ostentations of Scott ; none 
of the impetuous qualities of Sherman. What he was, he was of himself and by 
himself; a self-creation whose history puzzles the reckoning of the world and 
makes romance pale before it. The thoughtless would scan the surface of his 
record, from the multiplied ill-fortune of early life to the highest stepping in the 
round of fame, and call it accident ; but accidents build no such structures of im- 
perishable renown." — Philadelphia Times. 

" Thus another great and memorable figure in the later history of the republic — 
the most memorable, perhaps, excepting only Mr. Lincoln, among all those who 
performed their parts in the immortal contest for the preservation of the Union — 
passes away from living men and takes his place on the records of history. What 
encouragement for patriotism, for fidelity, for fearless defence of the great interests 
of mankind." — New York Sun. 

" The name of General Grant will be remembered by Americans as that of the 
saviour of their country in a crisis more appalling than any it has passed through 
since the United States became a nation. His fame as a soldier will survive as 
long as the history of our nation is read. The last of the two greatest Americans 
of their generation is gone." — New York Times. 

" Great men, said Burke, are the guide-posts and landmarks of the state ; and 
Grant was the guide-post of a victorious war and a landmark of a magnanimous 
peace. The American people themselves will judge him now, after the calm 
evening and the serene repose of retirement, more justly than in the stress and 
storm of struggle. The asperities of the angry contentions have passed ; the 
flaws have faded and the blemishes are dimmed, while the splendor of his 
achievements and the simple grandeur of his character have gained a brighter 
halo as the years have rolled by. The clouds and the smoke of battle have long 
since lifted ; the fragments and the scenes are swallowed in the majestic drama ; 
and to-day we see Grant elevated on his true pedestal of fame through the just 
perspective of history." — Philadelphia Press. 

" A splendid sun has set ; its light is out and its dark places have followed its 
bright ones below the trees and hills. It went down lingeringly, as if in pain 
with parting from the scenes it lighted with more of majesty in its gathering 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 675 

gloom than its noon had ever known. Those on whose downfall the temple of 
his fame was builded will sow no thorns on his grave to prick the violets planted 
by his people there. Whatever were his faults, his errors and his failures, but 
yesterday he stood in the eyes of all the world the foremost figure of the Western 
Continent. 

" Looking at the life and character of General Grant from the broadest national 
standpoint, it is true to say that no man since Washington has better illustrated the 
genius of American institutions or the temper of Americans as a people." — 
Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. 

" Our special despatches bring the not unexpected news of the death of the 
greatest and most illustrious man that lived in the world in the year 1 885. 
Washington and Lincoln will divide with Grant the prominent place in the 
histoiy of this country, but no man since the days of the great Napoleon has 
attracted so much attention throughout the world or made such a great military 
and civil reputation as Grant, and, when prejudices pass away and time brings 
calmness, justice and reason to pass upon General Grant's life, character and 
achievements, he will hold a very high place in the esteem of the citizens of this 
country, the citizens of the North, South, East, and West, and all of them will 
have great admiration for his character, a just pride in his patriotic services, and a 
profound respect for his memory.'' — Vicksburg Post. 

" The silent, modest man, who was unknown twenty-four years ago ; who had 
had a real ' baptism of fire ' when, as a subaltern, he did a true soldier's service 
in Mexico ; who retired soon after that war to take part as a worker in civilian 
life ; who gave his service to his country when the secession revolt began ; who 
grew to be a great soldier and the only one, after many better known had failed, 
who could lead the Union hosts to final victory ; who was magnanimous beyond 
all other victors in his treatment of the defeated armies ; who received the highest 
military and civil rank that was possible in the United States; who won the 
grateful love of the people even in the section of the countiy where he was the 
leader of invading armies — such a man has a unique and distinct place among the 
great men of the world." — Philadelphia Bulletin. 

"With the clearing of the early mists yesterday morning passed away the soul 
of General Grant, the most distinguished of living Americans, the general 
commanding the victorious armies of his country, and twice president of the 
republic. Washington alone of all men in our history has equalled him in 
honors. General Grant was a great commander. The operations of war, in 
which he was the leading figure of the Union armies, were colossal. The com- 
prehension that grasped this tremendous situation and the fortitude that endured 
its awful disasters was of itself greatness. The clear-sighted sense that moved 
straightforward amid these bewildering scenes, undeterred and undeviating, was 
military genius.'' — Atlanta Constitution. 



6y6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

" As the mortal remains of Ulysses S. Grant lie in their casket, and solemn 
guns are booming the last salute for the dead commander, we, of the South, 
forget the stern general who hurled his terrible masses upon the ranks of our 
fathers and brethren ; whose storms of shot and shell mowed down our friends 
like wheat before the gleaner ; remembering only the manly soldier who, in the 
hour of triumph, displayed the knightly chivalry that robs defeat of its bitterest 
pang. Vanquished by his arms, in his chivalric kindness we were doubly 
vanquished at Appomattox." — New Orleans Times-Democrat. 

" The foremost man of the nation has closed a career second to no other in the 
history of the republic." — New York Tribune. 

" He has passed from the home of endearment and sympathy into the pantheon 
of memoiy, and must be ranked Avith the illustrious great, whose genius is 
consecrated by noble services of patriotism." — Boston Advertiser. 

" In our opinion not only is his one of the few immortal names that were not 
born to die, but his is one of the still fewer names that are entitled to immortality 
upon earth. He is not only one of the immortals but he is one of them by 
right. He was an Agamemnon, a king of men. He was so pervaded by greatness 
that he seemed not to be conscious that he was great. He was magnanimous, 
modest, faithful to his friends, just to all men as far as his surroundings permitted, 
above simulation or dissimulation, self-poised and equal to every occasion. He 
was one of the greatest of generals ; there was nothing small about General 
Grant, no punic faith, no perfidious element, no jealousies. His chivalrous spirit 
would not permit him to ask Lee or his officers for their swords, or Lee's men for 
their horses. ' Go in peace ' was the substance of his treatment of the heroes who 
surrendered at Appomattox Court House. His fidelity to his not assumed, but 
presumed or supposed obligations, his loyalty to truth and justice, caused him to 
forbid that General Lee should be arrested or annoyed by Federal authorities." — 
Richmond Dispatch. 

"General Grant was a great soldier. In the opinion of many, he was the 
greatest soldier developed by the civil war. Reputations are made by success, 
and he was successful. He started at the bottom of the ladder and climbed to 
the top steadily, and he remained there. Even if history should not give him 
the first place among the soldiers of the civil war, it will rank him with the 
greatest soldiers of the world. No one will say, now that he is dead, that he 
ever turned away from those who had any claim upon him. There are those who 
were against him in the war to whom he reached out a helping hand when the 
war was over, when they sadly needed help. He was popular with the soldiers 
because he knew how to appreciate soldierly qualities. His magnanimity at the 
Appomattox surrender showed that he was as generous as brave." — Savannah 
News. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 6y/ 

" The death of General Grant will be honestly felt as a national affliction all 
over the wide Union, without reference to section or party." — Columbia (S. C.) 
Register. 

" Although the death of General Grant was long expected, the event is not the 
less deplored. We can only share with his mourning countrymen in a sense of 
the loss of one whose career was so notable, so honorable to himself and so 
useful to his native land." — London Standard. 

" Yesterday the greatest and most successful soldier that the United States has 
produced breathed his last. In no portion of the United States have the financial 
disasters marking the close of General Grant's career been regarded with more 
sympathy and regret than in England. Beyond all others he was best fitted to 
cope with the tremendous crisis which made him, and when the grave closes over 
all that is mortal of Ulysses Simpson Grant it will be felt that he leaves behind 
him no man cast in a simpler, sincerer or more heroic mold." — London Daily 
News. 

" He has filled a large space in the history of his country, and as the dust of 
current controversy settles down and the mists of contemporary prejudices clear 
away, he will, we believe, be universally recognized as one of her chief worthies — 
one who had a great work to do, and who, upon the whole, did it in a manful, 
honest and honorable fashion." — Toronto Globe. 

The pulpit drew inspiration from the occasion and turned its 
texts and sermons into eulogistic lessons. Brighter exemplar 
of the virtues of modern militant life they had not had, nor 
character so crowded with the traits that distinguish the 
age's manhood and assure its triumphs. Organized bodies 
everywhere were moved to resolutions of sympathy and solemn 
expressions of respect and admiration. The most marked 
and tender of these were framed and promulgated by the 
Grand Army Posts of the country, whose three hundred thou- 
sand veterans felt the old General's loss almost as a personal 
affliction. One set of resolutions that have the significance of 
history was that of the United States Christian Commission, 
passed in Philadelphia, July 27th, 1885. 

" Whereas God in his wisdom has removed from this world by the 
hand of death the Great Commander of the Union Armies, General 
Ulysses S. Grant, we for ourselves, and representing the surviving Mem- 



678 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

bers, Delegates and Helpers of the Commission, desiring to place on 
record our high appreciation of the character and services of the illus- 
trious General, and to express our sympathy with his family in their sad 
bereavement, do pass the following resolutions : 

" First. That in the death of General Grant, whose name and fame 
are imperishable, our nation has lost one who was divinely appointed to 
perpetuate its freedom and unity by the edge of the sword, but who, 
when the bloody work was done, returned it to its sheath, and strove to 
heal the wounds of war by the kind words and actions of peace. k 

"Second. That, passing over his high renown as a military leader, as 
a statesman, and as a patriot, we desire to bear testimony to the great 
services which, as head of the army, he rendered the Commission, by 
helping its delegates in every possible way to reach the wounded on the 
field of battle, in the camp, and in the hospitals, often overstepping strict 
military rules in order that they might readily accomplish their benevolent 
work, proving that great kindness of heart could be associated with the 
stern demands of war. 

" Third. That it is a great gratification to us to remember that the last 
appearance of General Grant upon a public platform was at our 5th Re- 
Union held at Ocean Grove, N. J., on August 2d, of last year (1884). 
Those who were present can never forget the boundless enthusiasm of 
his reception and the tears which he shed as the vast audience cheered 
him to the echo showing that his great soul which often seemed so un- 
movable was melted down by the mighty power of love. 

"Fourth. That while life lasts we will cherish his memory — all the 
more sacred because of his long and very painful illness — and hold him 
up to our children and to the whole country as a bright example of manly 
courage, patient endurance, and marvelous magnanimity." 

On the day of his death, July 23d, 1885, the President of 
the United States called his Cabinet together, and issued the 
following proclamation : — 

" The President of the United States has just received the sad tidings 
of the death of that illustrious citizen and ex-president of the United 
States, General Ulysses S. Grant, at Mount McGregor, in the State of 
New York, to which place he had lately been removed in the endeavor 
to prolong his life. 

" In making this announcement to the people of the United States, the 
President is impressed with the magnitude of the public loss of a great 
military leader, who was, in the hour of victory, magnanimous ; amid 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 679 

disaster, serene and self-sustained ; who, in every station, whether as a 
soldier or as chief magistrate twice called to power by his fellow country- 
men, trod unswervingly the pathway of duty, undeterred by doubts, 
single-minded and straightforward. 

" The entire country has witnessed with deep emotion his prolonged 
and patient struggle with painful disease, and has watched by his couch 
of suffering with tearful sympathy. 

" The destined end has come at last, and his spirit has returned to the 
Creator who sent it forth. The great heart of the nation that followed 
him, when living, with love and pride, bows now in sorrow above him 
dead, tenderly mindful of his virtues, his great patriotic services, and of 
the loss occasioned by his death. 

" In testimony of respect to the memory of General Grant, it is ordered 
that the Executive Mansion and the several departments at Washington 
be decked in mourning for a period of thirty days, and that all public 
business shall, on the day of the funeral, be suspended, and the Secre- 
taries of War and of the Navy will cause orders to be issued for appro- 
priate military and naval honors to be rendered on that day. 

" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal 
of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-third day of July, A. D. 
one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, and the independence of 
the United States the one hundred and tenth. 

"Grover Cleveland, President." 

This first official paper was followed by similar ones issued 
by the Governors of the States, all expressing the same deep 
sense of loss, the same sentiments of praise and respect, and 
designed to give organized direction to the final honors to 
be paid him. As an historic sample, we give that from ihe 
Governor of New York : — 

" Ulysses S. Grant, twice President of the United States ; the defender 
of the Union ; the victorious leader of our soldiers and General on the 
retired list of the army, is dead. To the last he was a true soldier, strong 
in spirit, patient in suffering, brave in death. His warfare is ended. 

" After the close of his official life and following that notable journey 
around the world, when tributes of esteem from nations were paid him, 
he chose his home among the citizens of our State. He died upon our 
soil, in the county of Saratoga, overlooking scenes made glorious by 



680 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Revolutionary memories. It is fitting that the State which he chose as 
his home should especially honor his memory. 

" The words of grief and the tokens of sorrow by which we mark his 
death shall honor, too, the offices which he held and proclaim that praise 
which shall ever be accorded to those who serve the Republic. 

" Therefore it is hereby directed that the flags on the public buildings 
of the State be placed at half-mast until his burial, and on that day, yet 
to be appointed, all ordinary business in the Executive Chamber and the 
departments of the State Government will be suspended. 

" The people of the State are called upon to display, until his funeral, 
emblems of mourning, and it is requested that at that hour they cease 
from their business and pay respect to the distinguished dead. 

" Given under my hand and the privy seal of the State of New York, 
at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, the twenty-third day of July, 
eighteen hundred and eighty-five." 

It was deemed fitting to make the burial a national one, 
after the private, or home, funeral services were completed. 
Therefore the public arrangements for the obsequies were 
given into the hands of Major General Hancock by the Presi- 
dent. He supplemented the Grand Army Guards at the cottage 
by guards of regular troops, and from this moment the body 
of Grant was in the custody of his country. 

The duty of selecting a burial spot was a solemn and painful 
one for the family. Some considerations pointed to Galena, 
the General's old home, some to New York, his adopted and 
last home, others to Washington, the capital of the country. 
Every national and patriotic consideration seemed to favor 
" The Soldier's Cemetery " at the capital, as the most suitable 
resting place for one who so clearly belonged to the entire 
country. But for reasons into which it would be indelicate to 
inquire, in so far as they were strictly private, Riverside Park, 
within the northern limits of New York city, and on the 
Hudson river, was selected by the family as the burial place. 

The park is not a park, but an unimproved, rocky, bluffy 
part of the island above the built up part of New York city. 
Art will have to join zealously with nature to make it attrac- 




mt. McGregor cottage under guard. 



682 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

tive and give it the beauty and appropriateness of a national 
shrine. 

On Wednesday, July 29th, the burial casket arrived at the 
cottage, and the remains were laid in it. They were dressed 
in a suit of plain black clothes. The embalming process had 
been successful, and the features were perfect. The glass top 
of the casket afforded a view of the body. For purposes of 
interment, an outer metallic case was provided. 

On Thursday, 30th, President Cleveland, at the request of 
Mrs. Grant, announced the pall bearers, as follows : General 
William T. Sherman, U. S. A. ; Lieutenant-General Philip H. 
Sheridan, U. S. A.; Admiral David D. Porter, U. S. N. ; Vice- 
Admiral Stephen C. Rowan, U. S. N. ; General Joseph E. 
Johnston, of Virginia ; General Simon B. Buckner, of Ken- 
tucky; Hamilton Fish (A. J. Drexel, of Philadelphia, was 
substituted on account of the illness of Mr. Fish), of New 
York ; George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts ; George W. 
Childs, of Pennsylvania ; John A. Logan, of Illinois ; George 
Jones, of New York ; Oliver Hoyt, of New York. The 
selection of such prominent ex-officers of the Confederate 
army as Generals Johnston and Buckner, resulted from com- 
munications exchanged between President Cleveland and Mrs. 
Grant, he having telegraphed her to know if she had any pref- 
erence or suggestions to make in the matter. He received a 
reply, saying, that it was her wish that he should name the 
pall bearers, and that the only suggestion she would make 
was that in case any prominent Union officer like General 
Sherman or Lieutenant-General Sheridan be selected, a lead- 
ing Confederate officer, like General Johnston or General 
Buckner, be also included in the list. 

Tuesday, August 4th was fixed as the day on which to 
begin the obsequies. They were to consist, on that day, of a 
private, or family funeral at the cottage on the mountain top. 
The remains were then to be taken to Albany, where they 



684 LIFE 0F ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

would lie in state in the capitol one day. Then they were 
to be taken by train to New York, where they would lie in 
state in the City Hall till the hour of interment on Saturday, 
August Sth, when they would be deposited in Riverside park, 
in a temporary tomb, erected for their reception. And now, 
all the energies of those who had the matter in charge were 
directed to making the obsequies as solemnly imposing as 
possible, and every way worthy of the illustrious dead. There 
was to be no unnecessary display ; that would not have been 
in keeping with the plain tastes and unassuming character of 
the deceased. But there was to be opportunity to pay last 
respects, to take a final view of the old hero, to drop a regretful 
tear and sigh a sad farewell, and this for the American million, 
the people, out of whose ranks he rose, in whose hearts he 
would find sepulture more royal than in gilded abbey or en- 
graven tomb. 



THE FAMILY FUNERAL. 

After a night of storm the morning of August 4th, 1885 
dawned brightly upon Mount McGregor. Sunrise was an- 
nounced by the deep booming of cannon, whose sullen roar 
was heard at intervals of every half hour throughout the day. 
The little train that winds up the mountain side began to make 
early and frequent trips, bringing from below those who were 
to take charge of the remains and escort them to Albany, as 
well as many who came to participate in the private ceremonies. 

By ten o'clock the soldiers had struck their tents and broken 
camp and the cottage grounds were put in order for the simple 
services which were to compose the family funeral. Outside 
was an audience of one thousand people, fringed on the right 
by Company E of the 12th Infantry, and on the left by Com- 
pany A of the 5th Artillery, as a guard of honor. In the 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 685 

entrance to the cottage stood a flag covered table, near which 
were seated the officiating clergy. Within the parlor were 
seated the family and a few intimate friends and chief mourners. 
In the centre of the parlor stood the casket, covered with 
purple plush and plainly mounted with silver. 

The unostentatious, yet impressive services were opened by 
the reading of the Psalm No. 90, by Dr. Agnew, of Philadel- 
phia. This was followed by an earnest and eloquent prayer 
by Rev. Bishop W. Harris of the M. E. Church of New York. 
The hymn " My Faith looks up to Thee," was then joined in 
by the assemblage. Next came the sermon by Rev. J. P. 
Newman D. D., General Grant's spiritual adviser and life-long 
friend. He arose at ten o'clock and twenty-one minutes, and, 
for over an hour, delivered an eloquent tribute to the character 
of the deceased. The services concluded by singing the 
hymn, " Nearer my God to Thee," and pronouncing the bene- 
diction. The family had taken their last look at the departed 
before the services, and had done those many mournful and 
kindly things which emphasized so delicately yet firmly the 
tender relations existing between the great man and them. 
The grandchildren had laid their chaplet of oak leaves on the 
casket. Years ago the wife had placed a ring on his finger. 
It had been a talisman in danger, and in peace a token of 
undying affection. When long sickness emaciated the finger, 
the ring was removed. After death the son bent over the 
rigid body and replaced the mother's gift on the cold finger, 
that the dead might wear it to the grave. And the dying man 
wrote a letter to his wife to be delivered when all was over. 
It was found on his person after death. Dr. Newman has 
given its contents in his sermon. The wife's answer, " Fare- 
well till in the other world I meet thee," with a lock of her 
hair, was placed in the pocket of the dead warrior to go with 
him to his last resting place. 

And now but a few moments remained for those present 



6S6 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



to view the remains, for the hour of departure for Albany 
had arrived. Then the assembly formed for its short pro- 




Rev. J. P. NEWMAN, D. D. 

cession from the cottage to the heavily draped observation 
car of the mountain railroad. Company "A" led the way, 
to the music of the " Dead March." The casket was borne 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 687 

by twelve members of the U. S. Grant Grand Army Post, 
of Brooklyn. It was followed by the male members of 
the General's family, and his most intimate friends. The 
throng stood with uncovered heads while the remains were 
placed in the car. The escort entered, and those who designed 
to go along to Albany took other cars. At one o'clock p. m., 
the train started, ending the private and beginning the national 
funeral of him who had come upon the mountain to die. 



THE FUNERAL ORATION. 

Matthew, chapter xxv., part of verse 21 : — "Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

WHAT A MAN IS.— " Such, my brethren, is the eulogy 
that God shall pronounce upon human goodness and fidelity 
wherever found among the sons of men. The accidental 
distinctions between prince and peasant, millionaire and 
pauper, commanding general and private soldier, are but as 
the dust in the balance in His estimation of personal worth ; 
He regards not the person of any man ; He looks upon the 
heart. If a renowned philosopher searched an ancient city for 
a man, God is ever in search for a character, which in His 
sight outweighs the transitory distinctions of earth and time, 
and out of which are the issues of life. Tell me not what a 
man possesses — the beauty of Absalom, the glory of Solomon, 
the wealth of Dives, the eloquence of Apollos, the learning of 
Paul — but rather tell me what he is in his modes of thought, in 
his emotional being, in the trend of his passions, in the temper 
of his mind, in the tenor of his life, out of which come the 
totality of his existence and the finality of his destiny. This 
is the man as he is, and by it let him be judged. In the in- 
tensity of this divine light let us to-day recall the character of 
the illustrious man whose death a nation so tenderly mourns. 



688 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

HO W WE HAVE SEEN HIM:—" Some comrade in 
arms shall speak of the splendor of his martial genius ; some 
statesman shall review the majesty of his civil administration; 
some historian shall place him on the pedestal of his renown ; 
but let me, as the minister of religion, dwell upon that great 
character which will ever be his crown of glory and the im- 
perishable heritage of the country he loved so well. 

" You have seen him in the fury of battle, in the glory of 
victory, in the chair of state ; you have seen him the guest of 
the world, honored by crowned heads and sceptred hands, by 
renowned warriors and eminent statesmen, by foremost 
scholars and adoring peoples ; you have seen him in the quiet 
of private life, undistinguished from his fellow men other than 
by those virtues which made him conspicuous and by that 
fame which came from honorable deeds ; you have seen him 
in the sorrow of misfortune, such as has often come to the best 
and wisest financiers in the world ; you have seen him in the 
suffering of the sick room through nine weary months, endur- 
ing the indescribable tortures of a malignant disease, and that 
without a murmur ; and to-day you see him in the repose of 
death, in the undisturbed sleep of the just And could you 
rend the veil that obscures our mortal vision you would see 
him in his better form of immortality, with all his mighty 
faculties in full play, unchanged in his individuality, the same 
calm, earnest, sincere soul, purified and exalted and intent on 
the realities of his better life. 

WHO IS DEAD ? — " Shall we pause to inquire the mean- 
ing of these emblems of national sorrow and universal grief — 
the flag at half mast, the minute gun, the muffled drum, the 
tolling bell, the solemn march, the reign of silence in schools 
of learning, in courts of justice and in halls of legislation ; the 
suspension of business, public and private buildings draped in 
black, streets thronged with mourners marching with measured 
step to strains of saddest music ? Shall we inquire why sweet 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 689 

childhood has forgotten its innocent joys, why womanhood is 
clad in sackcloth, why manhood is bowed with grief, and why 
all mourn as for a father, husband, brother, friend? 

" Shall we inquire why the land is filled with lamentation 
from the savannas of the South to the snow-capped hills of 
the North, and from where the Atlantic moans along its 
rugged coast to where the Pacific sobs on its golden shore ; 
why poets lament, orators deplore, editors deprecate and 
ministers turn to the unseen for consolation ; why kingdoms 
and empires and republics stand with our great nation as chief 
mourners around this bier ? 

" Who is dead? Oh ! ye sobbing winds of Mount McGregor 
that fanned his brow, tell it not. Whisper it not ye mountain 
pines that shaded his form. And keep ye silent, Oh ! ye sum- 
mer skies of love and beauty that smiled upon him. 

" Do you tell me, my friends, that a great man is dead — 
greatest among warriors, foremost among statesmen, noblest 
among patriots ? Do you tell me that he led our armies to 
victory. That he administered our government in wisdom ? 
That he best illustrated the essential principles of our national 
life ? Do you tell me that he was the truest of husbands, the 
kindest of fathers, the firmest of friends, the purest of philan- 
thropists, the humblest of Christians? True, thrice happily 
true ! Are these the reasons why we will not be comforted ; 
because those calm eyes cannot respond lovingly to our gaze, 
and those pure lips cannot greet us as of yore, and those ears 
cannot hear a nation's cry, ' To arms ! to arms ! for the foe 
is near ' ? 

LOFTINESS OF CHARA CTER.—" But whence the secret 
of the power of this one life on the thought of the world and 
the love of mankind ? 

" Others have insured for themselves imperishable renown 
for their martial prowess, for their profound statesmanship, for 
the display of their marvelous intellects ; but where in all the 

44 



69O LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

annals of the earth and time shall we find another who more 
than he stamped all that he said and all that he did with such 
purity and loftiness of character ? His individuality was most 
intense. This was the source of his strength, the power of 
his action, the glory of his achievements. He was never other 
than himself. He acted with a spontaneity all his own. 

" And what were the elements of that character, so unique, 
symmetrical and now immortal ? God had endowed him with 
an extraordinary intellect. For forty years he was hidden in 
comparative obscurity, giving no indications of his wondrous 
capacity ; but in those four decades he was maturing, and at 
the appointed time God lifted the veil of obscurity, called upon 
him to save a nation and give a new direction to the civilization 
of the world. How calm his judgment, how clean and quick 
and accurate his imagination, how vast and tenacious his 
memory ! Reason was his dominant faculty. He was a 
natural logician. He could descend to the smallest details 
and rise to the highest generalizations. His wonderful under- 
standing was like the tent in story — fold it, and it was a toy in 
the hand of a child ; spread it, and the mighty armies of a 
republic could repose in its shade. He could comprehend a 
continent with greater ease than others could master an island. 
Under his vast and comprehensive plans a continent shook 
with the tramp of advancing armies. As out of some immense 
mental reservoir there came a fertility of resources displayed 
in a hundred battles, in the greatest emergencies and in a 
threefold campaign, carried forward at the same time without 
confusion, and each the part of one stupendous whole. 

GENIUS OF COMMON SENSE.—" His was the genius 
of common sense, enabling him to contemplate all things in 
their true relations, judging what is true, useful, proper, expe- 
dient, and to adopt the best means to accomplish the largest 
end9. From this came his seriousness, thoughtfulness, pene- 
tration, discernment, firmness, enthusiasm, triumph. Wherein 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 69 1 

others dreamed of success, he saw defeat; when others 
expected despair, he discovered ground of hope. What were 
contrasts to others were comparisons to him. He often stood 
alone in his judgment and plans, and it is the enduring com- 
pliment to his practical sense that the blunders committed by 
others on military and political questions were the result of 
plans which never had his approval. In war and in peace he 
was the wisest and the safest guide this nation has had since 
the Father of His Country ascended to his reward. 

ACTION AND INTELLECT.—" For his clear and certain 
imagination the future loomed before him clothed with the 
actuality of the present. Read his military orders, and they 
prophesy the history of the battles he fought. He foresaw 
the enemy's plans as though he had assisted at their councils 
of war. He was one of those extraordinary men who, by the 
supremacy of their wills, force all obstacles to do their bidding. 
By the promptitude of his action he left no time for its con- 
travention. Times, places and persons he comprehended with 
mathematical accuracy. Nothing escaped his penetration. 
Such was the perpetual calmness of his intellect that he could 
transact the most important affairs when the storm of battles 
was raging at its height. 

WHEN GREATEST.—" His soul was the home of hope, 
sustained and cheered by the certainties of his mind and the 
power of his faith. His was the mathematical genius of a 
great general rather than of a great soldier. By this endow- 
ment he proved himself equal to the unexpected, and that 
with the precision of a seer. " The race is not to the swift, 
nor the battle to the strong," because the unexpected happens 
to every man. The grandest campaigns are often defeats, the 
most brilliant plans are unconsummated, the most wished for 
opportunities are unrealized, because baffled by the unexpected 
at the very moment of expected fulfillment. But he appeared 
greatest in the presence of the unforeseen. Then came an in- 



692 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

spiration as resistless as the march of a whirlwind, as when, 
on the second night of the battle of the Wilderness, when he 
changed the entire front of the line of battle, and quietly said in 
response to a messenger. ' If Lee is in my rear I am in his.' 

" In the history of a great general there come supreme mo- 
ments, when long maturing plans are to be consummated and 
long deferred hopes are to be realized. Some men can work 
up to that point and excite the admiration of mankind by 
the care and push wherewith they move toward the objective, 
but fail in the crucial moment. The preparations of this 
wonderful man rarely excited the applause of the people, 
because the workings of his masterful mind were hidden be- 
neath the silence of his lips ; but when the supreme moment 
came there came also an intellectual elevation, an uplifting of 
the whole being, a transformation of the silent, thoughtful 
general, which surprised his foes and astonished his friends. 
He culminated at the crisis. He was at his best when most 
needed. He responded in an emergency. 

LATENT RESOURCES.— 11 He is one of the few men in 
history who did more than was expected. Some men excite 
great expectation by the brilliancy of their preparations ; but 
this quiet, meditative, undemonstrative man exceeded all ex- 
pectations by doing more than he had promised, and by doing 
what all others had failed to do. Others had done their best 
with a conscientiousness worthy of all praise ; they had worked 
up to their maximum strength and accomplished much ; they 
had contributed largely to the final victory, and shall deserve 
well of their country. It was no fault of theirs if nature had 
not endowed them for the ultimate achievement. But this 
man, pre-eminent by the happy combination of both nature 
and Providence, rose superior in the supreme moment, forced 
all things to do his bidding, and, like another Joshua, could 
have commanded the sun and moon of surrounding circum- 
stances to stand still to illuminate his final path to victory. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 693 

His latent resources seemed inexhaustible. Was Fort Donel- 
son esteemed impregnable ? It yielded to his command for an 
immediate and ' unconditional surrender.' Did Vicksburg defy 
his sixth plan of capture ? His seventh plan was a success. 
Did Richmond hurl defiance at all previous attempts ? His 
final effort was a triumph, and over the doomed capital of the 
Confederacy triumphantly floated the flag of the Union. 

" Such were his untold hidden resources of adaptation, ever 
unfolding to meet the demand of new situations, that he would 
have proved himself equal to any position of trust and to any 
emergency that might arise. 

THE NATION'S NEED.— "When he rose to supreme 
command the nation demanded one dominant spirit, mighty 
to grasp, strong to execute, powerful to inspire. The country 
was one, the rebellion was one, and the armies of the Union 
should be one ; and the general who could mould, control, 
inspire an army a million strong and make them think, feel 
and fight as one man was the desire of the Republic. Such a 
one was he around whose bier a nation weeps to-day. To be 
everywhere present at once by his spirit and orders was in him 
a realized fact. His laconic order was, 'All strike together.' 
He imparted to all his own spirit and all things became pos- 
sible to his faith. The nation felt her mighty change, and the 
rebellion went down beneath the power of one master mind. 
He was the logician of war. He conquered by logic. He 
reasoned out his victories. In all the annals of war there is 
no such splendid reasoning on the certainty of results. Others 
have conquered by the superiority of material force, but he by 
the superiority of mind over mind. Alas ! Alas ! that he can 
no longer think for us ! 

A BENIGN CONQUEROR.— "To-day you are filled with 
the glory of his military triumphs. You are recalling Belmont 
and Henry and Donelson and Shiloh and Vicksburg and 
Chattanooga and Richmond. You are calling him the greatest 



694 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

of soldiers, and you do well. But do not degrade him to the 
level of those famous heroes who fought for empire and for 
glory. Lift him up to a higher pedestal, around which shall 
forever stand Justice and Liberty and Peace and Law and Order 
and Civilization and Religion, with chaplets in their hands 
wherewith to crown him. He fought for the right — to end the 
war ; he conquered a peace. He hated war. He looked upon 
it as a ghastly monster whose march is to the music of the 
widows' sigh and the orphans' cry. He loved peace and pur- 
sued it. ' Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 
the children of God,' was his beatitude. In his London speech, 
in 1877, he said: 'Although a soldier by education and pro- 
fession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I 
have never advocated it except as a means of peace.' This 
was the energy of his courage. 

" He would not waste life and treasure to gain advantages 
while the means were left to the enemy to regain them. He 
understood the necessity of sacrifice to achieve a greater 
advantage. He surrendered the lesser to obtain the greater. 
He was not indifferent to the preciousness of human life. Did 
he expose his troops ? He protected them by shortening the 
time of the war and by the greater vigor of his attacks. His 
was the arithmetic of blood. Some Quintius Fabius Maximus 
would have sacrificed a hundred thousand more men and 
$350,000,000 more treasure by the slowness of his movements 
and the feebleness of his efforts. ' How can I save my country 
and prevent the greater effusion of blood?' was his supreme 
question ; and his supreme answer was, ' By an energy that 
knows no defeat.' Thus he reasoned, and to-day the people 
bless him. 

" Such is the character of the true conqueror. Only such 
live in the grateful recollections of mankind. Away with 
heroes without humanity ! They may force our respect and 
seduce our admiration, but they can never win our love. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 695 

God planted goodness in man as the image of Himself. Great- 
ness should spring from goodness. This is the price of hearts. 
Away with your Alexanders and Caesars and Tamerlanes ! Let 
them be to our Christian civilization what the gigantic mon- 
sters of a departed period are in zoological history — types of 
an inferior age. In the oncoming centuries mankind will honor 
only those who drew the sword in defence of human rights 
and in support of the constitutional authority. Then, All hail, 
Mount Vernon! Then, All hail, Mount McGregor! 

GOODNESS OF HEART.— ■" From this better nature and 
higher mission as a warrior sprang his conduct toward the 
vanquished. He had no hatred in his heart. His heart was 
as tender as a woman's. He was not vindictive. His holy 
evangel to the nation was, ' Let us have peace.' Hence 
toward the close of the war, those who had fought against him 
saw that there was no safety but in the arms of their conqueror. 
In his dying chamber he grasped the hand of him whose sword 
was the first he had won and said : ' I have witnessed since 
my sickness just what I wished to see ever since the war — 
harmony and good feeling between the sections.' On holy 
Easter he sent forth this tender message : ' I desire the good- 
will of all, whether hitherto my friends or not.' His was the 
song of the angels — ' On earth peace, good will toward men.' 

" This has been the softening ministry of his sufferings to his 
countrymen. God permitted him to see this glorious consum- 
mation. Our sorrow is national in the broadest sense. And 
to-day, where the magnolia blooms and the palmetto grows, 
the 'men in gray' weep over the death of their best friend. 
And had he lived to see a foreign foe invade our shores, North 
and South would have chosen him to lead us to defend our 
liberty. 

ADMINISTRATIVE FORCE.— ■" Doubtless he will be best 
known in coming ages as the foremost soldier of the Republic. 
Unknown generations will read his battles with wonder and 



696 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

admiration. In every hamlet, in every metropolis, his martial 
form will be cast in bronze and sculptured in marble. His- 
torians will vie with each other in paying homage to his genius ; 
but the time will come when men everywhere will recognize 
the greatness and beneficence of his administration as Presi- 
dent of the United States. It were a crime against history 
and an injustice to his memory were we to lose sight of the 
statesman amid the glory of the warrior. Such was the mag- 
nitude of those great measures of state, of domestic and foreign 
policy ; so far reaching their influence, so comprehensive their 
mission, that generations may pass from the vision of the 
world ere the true and full estimate of his political worth shall 
be determined. Then his administration of eight years will 
receive the calm consideration and just approval of his coun- 
trymen. When the memories of party strife shall have been 
forgotten, when the disappointed aspirations for office shall 
have ceased to fester, when the rivals for place and power are 
no more — then, as comes the sun from the mist of the morn- 
ing, so shall his administration appear in greatest splendor. 
Then the historian of that calmer age will wonder how a sol- 
dier by endowment and education, accustomed only to camp 
and field, unlearned in statecraft, unfamiliar with political 
science, unacquainted with the methods of civil administration, 
could have displayed such breadth of statesmanship in the 
measures which he originated and approved. 

UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD.—" Great and beneficent 
as were his measures of reconstruction, amendments to the 
constitution, of finance, of the improvement of the laboring 
classes, of the just treatment of the Indians, of the elevation 
of the freedmen, of the promotion of education, and of the 
concessions he compelled foreign Powers to make, yet, in the 
interests of universal peace, in the ultimate recognition of the 
brotherhood of nations, in the advancement of Christian civili- 
zation in all the earth, the Treaty of Washington will be 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 697 

esteemed of immeasurable grandeur and beneficence, not to 
be estimated by millions of dollars, but by the possibility and 
prophecy that all international disputes may be adjusted by 
peaceful arbitration, when 'nations shall learn war no more.' 
Such was his dream of the future, expressed to the Interna- 
tional Arbitration Union in Birmingham, England, when he 
said, 'Nothing would afford me greater happiness than to 
know, as I believe will be the case, that at some future day 
the nations of the earth will agree upon some sort of congress 
which shall take cognizance of international questions of diffi- 
culty, and whose decisions will be as binding as the decision 
of our Supreme Court is binding upon us.' 

PURE MORAL CHARACTER.— ■" And whether in camp 
or Cabinet, in private or public, at home or abroad, how pure 
and commendable his moral character ! Life in the camp has 
proved ruinous to the morals of the greatest of warriors. The 
excitement of a life devoted to arms, the scenes of excess and 
plunder to which a soldier is exposed, the absence of the 
restraints of home and church, tend to the worst of passions 
and to the corruption of the best morals. But here, in the 
presence of the dead, whose ears are forever deaf to our praise 
or censure, let it be our grateful duty to record that, after five 
years in camp and field, he returned to his home without a 
stain upon his character. Among ancient or modern warriors 
where shall we find his superior in moral elevation ? Given to 
no excess himself, he sternly rebuked it in others. He could 
speak to every one according to his station — to generals of 
their battles, to statesmen of their measures, to travelers of 
their discoveries, to artisans of their inventions, to Christians 
of their hopes; and he could be the delightful companion of 
kings and queens, of courtiers and chosen friends. He never 
took the name of his Creator in vain, and an impure story never 
polluted his lips. He assured me, as his pastor that, were he 
disposed to swear, he would be compelled to pause to phrase 



698 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the sentence. Such was the purity of his thought life that he 
has been seen to blush and withdraw from the companionship 
of those who had presumed to relate a salacious story in his 
presence. 

SENSE OF JUSTICE. — " His sense of justice was equalled 
only by his love of truth. He preferred honor to wealth and 
poverty to riches not his own. Oh, Americans, think of the 
pride of your nation, the glory of your age and the object of 
the world's admiration having nothing to bequeath to those he 
loved save his good name, and that Heaven admitted to pro- 
bate without the whisper of contention ! 

GRATITUDE. — "Gentle, true and kind gratitude was one of 
the noblest emotions of his soul. His words were few, but 
pregnant with grateful recognition. To one who had been a 
friend in need he declared, ' I am glad to say, that, while there 
is much unblushing wickedness in the world, yet there is a 
compensating grandeur of soul. In my case I have not found 
that republics are ungrateful, nor are the people.' And so he 
had expressed himself in his speech in New York in 1880, ' I am 
not one of those who cry out against the Republic and charge 
it with being ungrateful. I am sure that, as regards the 
American people, as a nation and as individuals, I have every 
reason under the sun, if any person really has, to be satisfied 
with their treatment of me.' When restored to the army as 
general and retired on full pay he was deeply touched, and, 
taking the wife of his youth by the hand, he read the tele- 
gram which announced the fact, while, more eloquent than 
words, tears of gratitude to the nation he loved moistened 
those cheeks which never blanched with fear. 

HUMILITY.—" He ' followed the divine maxim, ' Before 
honor is humility.' It is difficult to be victorious and not be 
proud. Military success leaves in the mind an exquisite 
pleasure, which fills and absorbs the thoughts. The conqueror 
ascribes to himself superiority of capacity and force. He 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 699 

crowns himself with his own hands; he decrees to himself a 
secret triumph; he regards as his own the laurels others 
helped to gather; and when he renders to God public thanks 
he mingles his vanity with his devotions. But, read his 
orders; read the reports of his victories; read the memoirs of 
his life, and he praises his great subordinates and the army 
and navy that did the fighting. Behold the contrast in the 
general orders and reports of battles by the First Napoleon 
and those by this unpretentious conqueror ! What pride and 
boldness in the one, what humility and modesty in the other! 
And who, in all these four lustra since the strife was over, in 
the decade since he retired from the chair of State with 
a name great in both hemispheres, has ever heard him speak 
of his deeds of valor or the success of his administration ? 
* Let another praise thee, and not thine own lips ;' and to-day 
the people crown him with their grateful benedictions. 

UNSELFISHNESS.— ■"' In honor preferring one another' 
was the inspired maxim of his life. How evident his delight 
in announcing the triumph of those great generals who fought 
under him. And here in the presence of the illustrious dead, let 
us recall the tender and constant friendship of Grant and Sher- 
man and Sheridan. They were as one man. They acted 
without anxiety. There was in them a concurrence of thought, 
motive and aim, born of mutual confidence. They were at once 
the supplement and converse of each other. He was profound 
in reflection ; they acted by sudden illumination. He was cool 
without languor; they ardent without precipitation. He was 
more ready to act than to speak, and most resolute and deter- 
mined when silent; they most eloquent in words and deeds 
when executing the plans of their chief. He created in them 
the expectation of something extraordinary; they sought to 
reach those distinctions which crowned his life as the most con- 
summate general. He, by his rapid and constant efforts, won 
the admiration of the world; they rejoiced to shine in the 



700 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

association of his glory. He, by the depth of his genius and 
his incredible resources, rose superior to the greatest dangers; 
they, by an admirable instinct, seemed to learn to draw fortune 
into their plans and force destiny itself. What a privilege to 
study these men and learn from each the esteem the other 
merited. But, alas ! the trinity is broken. Grant is dead ! 

NOT STOICAL. — "Yet he was not a stoic, insensible alike 
to pain and pleasure; indifferent to public opinion or careless 
about- his honor or his rights. He loved the praise of men 
when the reward of honorable action. He was a sensitive, 
high spirited, manly man, who had the will and the courage 
to contend to the last for what was his due. If he reviled not 
when reviled, he accepted the divine philosophy that a ' soft 
answer turneth away wrath.' If he was patient under misrep- 
resentation, he trusted Him who said: 'Vengeance is mine; 
I will repay, saith the Lord.' Was he silent under reproach ? 
He preferred the greater satisfaction of the reversion of public 
opinion. Only those permitted to hear the whispers of his 
sensitive heart knew of the grief and anguish he experienced 
when maligned by ignorance, prejudice and disappointed aspi- 
rants. He had meekness, but it was not the base surrender of 
self-respect. His indignation could burn like a mountain on 
fire, but he never permitted himself to become consumed by 
its volcanic eruptions. He knew his enemies and treated 
them with a withering silence that has passed into a proverb. 
He knew his friends, and true to his knightly soul, supported 
them in 'good report and evil.' But he was never the 
companion of bad men ; and when he discovered in a pre- 
tended friend deception, or dishonesty, or immorality, he shook 
him off as Christ rejected Judas. His was the language of 
the Psalmist, ' In whose eyes a vile person is contemned.' 
His private friendships were refined, and he found his chief 
delight in the society of the true, the pure and the elevated. He 
discerned character with the precision of a seer. His great 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 7<DI 

subordinates are in proof. His chief associates in the affairs 
of state are illustrations. And the marvel of the ages will be 
that through a long and responsible public career he was so 
seldom deceived, when on the highest authority it is said, 
' Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light ' to de- 
ceive the very elect. It has been the ill-fortune of the best 
and wisest of men from Moses to David, from David to Paul, 
from Paul to Luther, to be deceived by pretended friends. 
Caesar had his Brutus, Washington had his Arnold, Christ had 
his Judas. 

SELF-APPRECIATIVE.— -' 'And the world mistakes the 
character of our illustrious countryman in supposing that he 
was without self-appreciation. He knew his power and 
realized his strength. His humility was not born of self- 
ignorance. His self-abnegation was not inspired by contempt 
for the reward of noble deeds. He was not indifferent to the 
approbation of his fellow-men, nor was his ear deaf to the 
voice of praise. He loved fame, but he did not seek it; he 
loved power, but he did not aspire to it ; he loved wealth, but 
he did not covet it. He was a man with all the passions and 
appetites of human nature, and to make him other than a well- 
poised, self-mastered man, would be an injustice to his memory. 
But he was wiser than his celebrated contemporaries, in that he 
would not suffer himself to be unmanned by popular applause, 
or the exercise of power, or the possession of wealth, or 
crushed by misfortune, or disheartened by suffering. In this 
he was greater than the great of his own age. 

MENTAL TRAITS.— "He loved life and enjoyed it; he 
loved children and caressed them ; he loved his family and 
found therein his chief delight. He had not taste for music, 
but he had melody in his heart. He despised pretence and 
show, but admired the real and beautiful. He was not fond 
of books, yet by carefulness of observation, by thoroughness 
of reflection, by attentiveness to the conversation of the well 



702 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

informed, by extensive travels in many lands, by the daily 
study of current events, he was the most intelligent citizen in 
our Republic. He was the most diligent newspapers reader in 
the land. He was a living encyclopsedia of facts, figures and 
men, and often astounded his hearers with his accurate esti- 
mate of persons, the keenness of his observations and the 
vastness of his information. 

PA TIENCE UNDER A TTA CK-" Out of his great char- 
acter came the purest motives, as effect follows cause. He 
abandoned himself to his life mission with the hope of no 
other reward than the consciousness of duty done. Duty to 
his conscience, his country and his God was his standard of 
successful manhood. With him true greatness was that in 
great actions our only care should be to perform well our part 
and let glory follow virtue. He placed his fame in the service 
of the State. He was never tempted by false glory. He never 
acted for effect. He acted because he could not help it. His 
action was spontaneous. Ambition could not corrupt his 
patriotism ; calumnies could not lessen it ; discouragements 
could not subdue it. It was riot a sudden outburst of the 
imagination, but an intelligent conviction. He committed all 
to the great struggle to save his country. There was a time 
when he preferred that his military genius should suffer 
momentary depreciation rather than hazard the cause of the 
Union by revealing the vastness of his plans, which required 
time to unfold. Who does not recall the time when an ardent, 
patriotic people became impatient, exacting, clamorous for im- 
mediate results ? But he had the energy of silence. His self- 
control was equal to the self-control of the nation. How calm 
and unruffled was he. He knew that time was an essential 
element in a war so vast and complicated. He could wait. 
He did wait. And a grateful people bless his memory. And 
here, to-day, in the presence of the dead, with a nation 
redeemed, peaceful and prosperous, who does not regret the 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 703 

cloud cast over him at Pittsburg Landing, at Vicksburg and 
in the Wilderness? He made no reply. He spoke no word 
of complaint. He offered no self-vindication. He knew his 
plans and felt assured of success. Oh ! great soul, forgive 
our impatience ; forget our lack of confidence ; blot from thy 
memory our cruel censures. Thou wert wiser and kindlier 
and better than we. We did it in the ardor of our patriotism 
and in our love of liberty. And from the serene heavens into 
which thou hast gone join our song as we praise that God 
who gave thee the victory and thus a redeemed nation. 

THE TYPICAL AMERICAN.— -"The martyrs of one age 
are the prophets of the next. Fame succeeds defamation. 
Time changes all things. Washington endured a like ordeal. 
His neutrality proclamation touching the war between France 
and England and his treaty with England gave mortal offence. 
His action was denounced in Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston. His mock funeral was enacted at Philadelphia. The 
treaty was burned in the public squares. His character was 
aspersed. He was declared destitute of merit as a statesman. 
He was charged with having violated the constitution, with 
having drawn from the public Treasury for his private use, and 
his impeachment was publicly suggested. Thus has changed 
the verdict of the people. He is now enthroned in the hearts 
of his countrymen, and so shall his illustrious successor forever 
dwell in the grateful affection of the American people. 

" If to-day we lay upon the altar of his memory, as our votive 
offering, our liberties, our wealth and our homes, let us learn 
to be cautious in our decisions on the acts of our public 
servants, and slow in our censures upon those whom time may 
prove our greatest benefactors. 

" And where, in all the annals of our national life, shall we 
find another, save the sage of Mount Vernon, who was so 
truly a typical American ? Is it true that his personal qualities 
were not brilliant ; that his salient points were not conspic- 



704 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

uous ; that in running parallels between him and other men of 
fame a feeling of disappointment is experienced because there 
is not on the surface some prodigious element of power and 
greatness ? Yet he had this double advantage over all this 
world's heroes — he possessed the solid virtues of true greatness 
in a larger degree than other men of renown, and possessed 
them in greater harmony of proportions. Some heroes have 
been men of singular virtue in particular lines of conduct. 
Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, was distinguished for his moder- 
ation and courage. Aristides the Just scorned the bribes 
offered by Mardonius. The patriotism of Leonidas was proof 
against the temptation of uncounted gold. Regulus was the 
soul of Roman honor, and accepted exile and death to infamy. 
Marcus Aurelius Antonius gave his royal fortune to relieve 
the poor of his empire. Peter the Great was illustrious for his 
pride of country and laid the foundation of Russia's present 
greatness. Frederick of Prussia was a soldier prince, the re- 
nown of whom, history has preserved as a memorial. But this 
foremost American possessed all these and other virtues in 
happy combination — not like single gems, brilliant by isola- 
tion, but like jewels in a crown of glory, united by the golden 
band of a completer character. What humility amid such 
admiration ; what meekness amid such provocation ; what 
fidelity amid such temptations ; what contentment amid such 
adversity ; what sincerity amid such deception ; what ' faith, 
hope and charity ' amid such suffering ! Temperate without 
austerity; cautious without fear; brave without rashness; 
serious without melancholy; he was cheerful without frivolity. 
His constancy was not obstinacy ; his adaptation was not fickle- 
ness ; his hopefulness was not Utopian. 

SOLID VIRTUES.—" His love of justice was equalled 
only by his delight in compassion, and neither was sacri- 
ficed to the other. His self-advancement was subordinated 
to the public good. His integrity was never questioned ; his 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 705 

honesty was above suspicion ; his private life and public 
career were at once reputable to himself and honorable to his 
country. 

" Do you remind me that these are plain, homely, solid 
virtues ? Yet they are the essential elements in public use- 
fulness and permanent renown. Is it true that mankind are 
attracted by shining qualities and are led captive by brilliancy 
rather than by solidity ? Are the masses charmed by the 
tears of the Macedonian ; by the Roman crossing the Rubicon; 
by the Frenchman dispersing the National Directory ? But 
he was too great to be brilliant as men count brilliancy. The 
sword of Orion, the clustered glories of the Pleiades, the up- 
lifted falchion of Perseus are more attractive than the polar star; 
but of all the stellar hosts, which is more important than that 
calm and steady planet to gladden the mariner on the track- 
less deep ? Dew-drops sparkle in the morning sun, and the 
summer cloud emits its fructifying shower, and in turn is 
decked with the celestial bow ; but what are these compared 
to the wealth and highway of the ocean ? In sheets of light 
and in bars of fire the lightning dazzles the eye and terrifies 
the mind of the beholder, but what is the glow of the one or 
the sheen of the other to the daily sun spreading warmth 
and plenty and beauty over the habitations of man ? He 
was the sun of our plenty, the ocean of our wealth, and the 
polar star shining calmly and steadily in the heavens of our 
Republic. 

"Such a solid, sturdy character becomes our geography and 
institutions, and our destiny. Self-government calls upon the 
judgment to control the imagination ; to ambition to submit 
to queenly modesty ; to adventure to bow to prudence ; to 
justice to hold in subjection political wrong ; to virtue to 
dominate every vice. It seems to be with us a national tradi- 
tion that only men of solid virtues shall be raised to supreme 
positions in our Republic. 

45 



706 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

' Our greatest yet with least pretence, 
Great in council and great in war, 
Foremost captain of his time, 
Rich in saving common sense, 
And as the greatest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime.' 

HOME LIFE. — " As he was the typical American, should 
we be surprised to find that his was the typical American 
home? May we lift the curtain and look upon the holy 
privacy of that once unbroken household ? O ! the mutual 
and reciprocal love of wedded life within those sacred pre- 
cincts. Husband and wife the happy supplement of each 
other, their characters blending in sweetest harmony like the 
blended colors in the bow of promise. He strength, dignity 
and courage ; she gentleness, grace and purity. He the Doric 
column to sustain; she the Corinthian column to beautify. 
He the oak to support ; she ivy to entwine. In their life of 
deathless love their happiness lay like an ocean of pearls and 
diamonds in the embrace of the future. He unhappy without her 
presence ; she desolate without his society. She pure, high 
minded, discriminating, ardent, loving, intelligent ; he confided 
to her his innermost soul and blessed her with his best 
and unfailing love. She shared his trials and his triumphs, 
his sorrows and his joys, his toils and his rewards. How 
tender was that scene, in the early dawn of that April day, 
when all thought the long expected end had come, he gave 
her his watch and tenderly caressed her hand. It was all the 
great soldier had to give to the wife of his youth. And the 
dying hero whispered : ' I did not have you wait upon me, 
because I knew it would distress you ; but now the end draws 
nigh.' And out from the 'swellings of Jordan' he rushed 
back to the shore of life to write this tender message to his 
son : ' Wherever I am buried, promise me that your mother 
shall be buried by my side.' It is alia wife could ask; it is 
all a husband could wish. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. JQJ 

" ' Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they 
shall not be divided.' 

" Side by side they shall sleep in the same tomb, and she 
shall share with him whatever homage future ages shall pay 
at his national shrine. 

" It w r as his love for her that lifted his intellect above the 
ceaseless tortures of a malignant disease and threw oblivion 
over the sense of excruciating pain, that he might write his 
1 Personal Memoirs,' that she would not want when he was 
gone. 

"And how tender was his care. He thought not of himself, 
but of her. To his son he said, ' I hope mother will bear up 
bravely.' To quiet her anxiety he wrote : ' Do as I do ; take 
it quietly. I give myself not the least concern. If I knew 
the end was to be to-morrow I would try just as hard to get 
rest in the meantime.' Would she keep holy vigils through 
the livelong night ? He wrote her : ' Go to sleep and feel 
happy ; that is what I want to do and am going to try for. I 
am happy when out of pain. Consider how happy you ought 
to be. Good night ! ' 

"And such was the tenderness of his love and solicitude for 
her and hers he surprised her by a letter found after his death. 
It came as a message to her from him after he had gone. 
When his spirit had returned to the God who gave it therr 
was found secreted in his robe his last letter to her, enveloped, 
sealed and addressed. He had written it betimes, written it 
secretly, and carried the sacred missive day after day during 
fourteen days, knowing that she would find it at last. In it 
he poured forth his soul in love for her and solicitude for 
their children : 

" ' Look after our dear children and direct them in the paths of rectitude. It 
would distress me far more to think that one of them could depart from an hon- 
orable, upright and virtuous life than it would to know that they were prostrated 
on a bed of sickness from which they were never to arise alive. They have 



708 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

never given us any cause for alarm on their account, and I earnestly pray they 
never will. 

" ' With these few injunctions and the knowledge I have of your love and affec- 
tion, and of the dutiful affection of all our children, I bid you a final farewell, 
until we meet in another, and I trust a better world. You will find this on my per- 
son after my demise. 

" < Mount McGregor, July 9, 1885.' 

FILIAL AFFECTION.—' 1 And who should marvel in a 
home o'f such parentage that parental love and filial affection 
should reign supreme ! 

" ' Honor thy father and thy mother ' was in perpetual obedi- 
ence there. Oh, what reverence for that honored father shown 
by those devoted sons and that precious daughter! Oh, 
what blissful love they manifest for that dear mother, to-day a 
widow ! What pure delight in each other's company ; what 
mutual pride in each other's future welfare ! And while all 
honor is due to each child of the departed for love, devotion 
and anxiety, and now for grief, yet the American people will 
never forget the sleepless nights, the ceaseless vigils by day, 
the profound deference, the tender caresses, the deathless love 
of his first-born son, whose manly heart was crushed when his 
father died. Such a home is worthy to be called an American 
home. Give us such homes of purity, love and joy, and our 
Republic shall live forever. 

RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS.—" If such was his charac- 
ter, such his life, such his home, what were the consolations 
which sustained him in sickness and cheered him in death ? 
Was life to him a ' walking shadow ' and death an endless 
dream ? Was his calmness in suffering born of stoical philos- 
ophy or inspired by Christian fortitude ? Were his love and 
hope limited by earth and time or destined to live forever ? 
Reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and baptized in 
his last illness by one of her ministers, his religious nature 
was sincere, calm and steadfast. The principles of Christianity 
were deeply engrafted upon his spirit. Firm, but never de- 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 7O9 

monstrative, he was not a man of religious pretence. His life 
was his profession. He knew that Christianity had nothing 
to gain from him beyond the influence of a ' well ordered life 
and a godly conversation,' but that he had everything to gain 
from the power and promises of our Lord. More than in all 
things else he was taciturn touching his religious faith and 
experience; not, however, from doubt and fear, but from men- 
tal characteristics. The keenest, closest, broadest of all ob- 
servers, he was the most silent of men. He lived within 
himself. His thought life was most intense. His memory 
and imagination were picture galleries of the world and libra- 
ries of treasured thought. He was a world to himself. His 
most intimate friends knew him only in part. He was fully 
and best known only to the wife of his bosom and the chil- 
dren of his loins. To them, the man of iron will and nerve of 
steel, was gentle, tender and confiding, and to them he un- 
folded his beautiful religious life. 

"On the 1 8th of April he said to me: 'I believe in the 
Holy Scriptures, and whoso lives by them will be benefited 
thereby. Men may differ as to the interpretation, which is 
human, but the Scriptures are man's best guide.' He revered 
their source, recognized their influence, responded to their 
requisitions, trusted in their promises and found consolation 
in their hopes. His faith in God as the sovereign ruler and 
the Father Almighty was simple as a child's and mighty as a 
prophet's. There is an eloquence of pathos in the opening 
sentence of the preface to his Memoirs. He had proposed for 
himself other plans of usefulness to occupy his declining 
years. He would have mingled in the busy scenes of life in 
the places where men do " most congregate." He would 
have been identified with the great enterprises of his day, to 
increase a nation's wealth and power, and the glory of that 
city in whose enchanting park he shall repose beneath the 
noblest monument. He would have enjoyed domestic and 



/IO LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

social wealth and well-earned renown. But heaven decreed 
otherwise. ' Man proposes and God disposes.' There are 
but few important events in the affairs of men brought about 
by their own choice. Such was his faith in Providence, which 
imparted to him absolute power in his great mission ; and 
when burdened by the gravest responsibilities ; when con- 
scious that a nation's life had been confided to his care ; when 
the darkness of adversity overshadowed him, he trusted in the 
Lord who is mightier than the mighty. 

" Doing nothing for show, yet he made public recognition of 
God by his faithful and conscientious attendance upon divine 
worship. No public man heard more sermons than he, and 
he was the best of hearers. Whether in the obscurity of 
Galena, or in the conspicuousness of Washington, or in the 
private walks of life in New York, he was in his pew on 
the Lord's Day. And his pastor was always sure of his 
presence on a stormy Sabbath. His faithful attendance at 
church was largely inspired by his respect for the Sabbath 
day. On Monday, April 20th, he said to me : ' I did not go 
riding yesterday, although invited and permitted by my phy- 
sicians, because it was the Lord's Day, and because I felt 
that if a relapse should set in, the people who are praying 
for me, would feel that I was not helping their faith by riding 
out on Sunday.' And on a Saturday night, to divert his 
attention from pain and uneasiness, his eldest son suggested 
some innocent diversion, but when informed that it was near 
midnight, the honored father replied : ' It is too near the Sab- 
bath to begin any diversion.' 

A MAN OF PRA YER.— U He was a man of prayer. It 
was on Sabbath evening, March 22d, when alone with Mrs. 
Grant, that his pastor entered, and the General, with tenderest 
appreciation and gratitude, referred to the many prayers 
offered for him and mentioned societies and little children who 
had promised to pray for him daily ; and then, in answer to 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 71 1 

his minister's suggestion that we should join that universal 
prayer, he replied with emphasis, ' Yes ; ' and at the conclusion 
of our supplication the illustrious invalid responded ' Amen ! ' 
That Amen by that silent man was more significant than 
volumes by others. But it was his custom and habit to call 
to prayers. On March 27th, late in the evening, he requested 
all to enter his room for devotions, and made a special request 
for the presence of his ' beloved physician,' and his friend 
Romero. And on this mount, to be hereafter hallowed ground, 
and where his monument shall rise in grandeur, he said to an 
honored priest of another church : ' I know and feel very 
grateful to the Christian people of the land for their prayers 
on my behalf. There is no sect or religion, as shown in the 
Old or New Testament, to which this does not apply. 
Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and all the good people of all 
nations, of all politics as well as religions, and all nationalities 
seem to have united in wishing or praying for my improve- 
ment. I am a great sufferer all the time, but the facts you 
have related are compensation for much of it. All that I can 
do is to pray that the prayers of all these good people may be 
answered so far as to have us meet in another and a better 
world.' 

" He was not a bigot. Bigotry was no part of his noble 
and generous nature. While he demanded religion as the 
safeguard of a free people, he accorded to all the largest 
freedom of faith and worship. He was without prejudice ; he 
claimed that public education should be non-sectarian, but not 
non-religious. His Des Moines public speech on education 
was not against the Roman Catholic Church, but against 
ignorance and superstition. The order issued during the war 
excluding certain Jewish traders from a given military district, 
did not originate with him, but came from higher authority, 
and was not against the religion of the Jews. 

" His was the beatitude : ' Blessed is he that considereth the 



712 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

poor.' Strangers might regard him indifferent to the needy ; 
yet the poor will rise up and call him blessed. Many were the 
pensioners on his kindly bounty. He gave ' his goods to feed 
the poor.' While president he heard his pastor on 'Active 
Christianity,' and in the discourse, mention was made of a 
soldier's widow, sick and poor, and of a blind man in pressing 
want. He had just reached the White House, when he sent 
me back this card with the money : ' Please give ten dollars 
to the blind man and ten dollars to the soldier's widow.' On 
a Christmas eve he wrote me thus : 

" ' Executive Mansion, December 24th, 1869. 
" ' Dear Doctor — Please find enclosed my check for one hundred dollars, for 
distribution among the poor, and don't forget " The Ragged Schools " on the 
Island. Yours, truly, 

"<U. S. Grant.' 

SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS.—" In private, unseen life, he 
bore many of the fruits of the Spirit. He loved his enemies 
not as he loved his friends, but he loved them as enemies by 
doing them good as he had opportunity. Of all men known 
in a pastoral experience of thirty years, he displayed the spirit 
of forgiveness more than any other man. He caught the 
spirit of the Saviour's prayer: 'Father, forgive them; they 
know not what they do.' There is one high in official position 
in our nation who had traduced him at the point of honor, 
whereat a great soldier is most sensitive, and the wrong done 
was made public to the mortification of all. Grieved at what 
he had done, and confined to his sick room, he who had 
offended was nigh unto death. But himself a man of proud 
and sensitive spirit, he sighed for reconciliation. ' Would the 
President forgive the offense and call on the sick ? ' anxiously 
asked interested friends. A suggestion from me that it would 
be a Christian act to call was sufficient. The call was made ; 
the sick man revived, and old friendship was restored. And 
rising to a magnanimity worthy a saint, he would not with- 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 713 

hold an honor due, even from those who had done him a 
wrong. Who does not regret the death of such a man ? 
Heaven may be richer, but earth is poorer. On one of those 
delusive April days when hope revived in all our hearts, I said 
to him : ' You are a man of Providence ; God made you the 
instrument to save our nation, and He may have a great 
spiritual mission to accomplish by you and may raise you up.' 
In the most solemn and impressive manner, with a mind clear 
and a voice distinct, he replied : * I do not wish to proclaim it, 
but should He spare my life it is my intention and resolve to 
throw all my influence, by my example, in that direction.' 

A POWER IN DEATH.— -"He is gone, but shall death 
defeat a purpose so beneficent? Is he not mightier in his 
death than in his life ? What home has not felt the sympa- 
thetic chord touched by the invisible hand of his terrible but 
patient suffering? How the embers of sectional strife have 
died out on the hearthstone of the nation ! How political 
animosities have skulked away in shame from the peaceful 
spirit of his last moments ! How sectarian prejudices shrank 
into oblivion when around his couch all bowed in prayer before 
a universal Saviour ! How the young men of the Republic 
realized that life is worth living when they felt the touch of his 
great soul. How the little children of the nation united his 
name with that of father and mother in their purer prayers, 
and opened the tablets of their young memories to receive the 
image of his life and character ! And wherever he had touched 
the circuit of the earth, there came from Japan, China and 
India, from the temples of Jerusalem and the Pyramids of 
Egypt, from Attic plains and ancient Troy, from the Bosphorus 
and the Golden Horn, from the Danube and the Rhine, from 
the Seine and the Thames, the voice of love that made all men 
akin. Oh ! who would not even dare to die to do so much for 
mankind ? And this was his consolation. When near his end 
he sought to cheer that precious woman who loved him as her 



714 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

life : 'You ought to feel happy under any circumstances. My 
expected death called forth expressions of sincere kindness 
from all the people, of all sections of the country. The Con- 
federate soldier vied with the Union soldier in sounding my 
praise The Protestant, the Catholic and the Jew appointed 
days for universal prayer in my behalf. All societies passed 
resolutions of sympathy for me and petitions that I might 
recover. It looked as if my sickness had had something to do 
to bring about harmony between the sections. The attention 
of the public has been called to your children, and they have 
been found to pass muster. Apparently I have accomplished 
more while apparently dying than it falls to the lot of most 
men to be able to do.' 

THE DEATH BED.— ■" And where in all the annals of 
the Church shall we find a dying hour so full of divine repose? 
His calm faith in a future state was undisturbed by anxious 
doubt. His suffering and wasted body was but the casket for 
the resplendent jewel of his soul, and when death ruthlessly 
broke that precious casket an angel carried the jewel to the 
skies to lay it at the Saviour's feet. In the early light of 
April 1st, when all thought the end was come, the sufferer said 
to me: ' Doctor, I am going.' 

" ' I hope the prospect of the future is clear and bright,' was 
my response; and the answer came: 'Yes; oh, yes!' Then 
followed a scene of infinite tenderness. The honored wife, the 
precious daughter, the devoted sons and their wives, each in 
turn approached, and he tenderly kissed them. 'Do you 
know me, darling ? ' was the loving wife's inquiry, and he 
whispered back : ' Certainly I do and bless you all in my 
heart' Such love melted the marble heart of death and the 
'King of Terrors' fled affrighted. The sufferer revived. 
Heaven added months to a life so dear to us all. When he had 
recovered sufficiently I asked him : ' What was the supreme 
thought on your mind when eternity seemed so near? ' 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. fl$ 

" ' The comfort of the consciousness that I had tried to live a 
good and honorable life,' was the response, which revealed 
the hidden life of his soul. Again the angel of death cast his 
shadow over the one a nation loved. Amid the gathering 
gloom I said: 'You have many awaiting you on the other 
side.' 

" ' I wish they would come and not linger long,' was the 
answer of his Christian faith and hope. They came at last. 
They came to greet him with the kiss of immortality. They 
came to escort the conqueror over the 'last enemy' to a coro- 
nation never seen on thrones of earthly power and glory. 
Who came ? His martyred friend, Lincoln. His companion 
in arms, McPherson. His faithful chief-of-staff, Rawlins. His 
great predecessor in camp and cabinet, Washington. And 
did not all who had died for liberty come ? O, calm, brave, 
heroic soul, sing thou the song of Christian triumph: 'O 
death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory? 
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord.' 

" And that victory was at hand. From his view on Monday 
at the Eastern outlook he was to ascend to behold a grander 
vision. Tuesday came and went. Night drew on apace, and 
death seemed imminent. Around his chair we knelt in prayer 
for some divine manifestation of comfort. Our prayer was 
heard. The sufferer revived. Again he wrote messages of 
love and wisdom. The night wore away. Wednesday dawned 
on hill and dale. Hope revived. His intellect was clear and 
his consciousness was supreme. Again he wrote, and again he 
whispered the wishes of his heart. As came the eventide, so 
came his last night. From out of that chair, wherein he had 
sat and suffered, and wrote and prayed, tenderly he was carried 
to that couch from which he was never to rise. Around him 
we gathered and bowed in prayer to commend his departing 
spirit to the love and mercy of Him who gave it. He 



y\6 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

answered in monosyllables to questions for his comfort The 
brain was the last to die. All were watchers on that memor- 
able night. Recognitions were exchanged. A peaceful death 
and consciousness to the last breath were granted unto him. 
The last night had passed. 

DEAD. — " Tis morning. The stars have melted into the 
coming light. The rosy-fingered morn lifts the drapery of the 
night. The distant mountains stand forth aglow. The soft, 
pure light of early dawn covers earth and sky. The dew 
drop sparkles on the grass and in the daisy's cup. The birds, 
from their sylvan coverts, carol the melody of a thousand 
songs. The world rejoices, and its many minstrels challenge 
the harpers of the sky. In an humble cottage, prone upon 
his couch, lies 'an old commander.' He is dying! 

" 'Tis morning; and in the light of that day thousands of 
earnest faces flash with renewed concern. From many a 
shaded lane and mountain slope; from many a farm house 
and splendid mansion; eager eyes look toward the mount of 
suffering, and breathe a prayer to God for the one we loved. 
Alas ! he is dead ! 

" 'Tis morning ! It is the promise of a brighter day. The 
trumpeters of the skies are sounding the reveille. Their notes 
have reached the earth. Their notes have reached our 
general's ears. He has gone to join the triumphant hosts. 
'Tis morning in heaven ! " 



ENGLISH MEMORIAL SERVICE. 

Concurrently with the family funeral services on Mt. 
McGregor, the people of England showed their respect for 
the illustrious American by conducting memorial services in 
Westminster Abbey. That such services should have been 
held in an edifice sacred to the memory of English sovereigns 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 717 

and their most illustrious subjects, and that they should have 
been attended by representatives of royalty, the ministry, the 
bench, the church, the army, the navy and of every branch of 
the government, was striking proof of their regard for General 
Grant's character, and of the closeness of English race ties. 
But very significant indeed was Canon Farrar's memorial 
address. It was far more American than English. He was 
an earnest and fervent eulogist of General Grant as the pro- 
duct of political and social freedom. " Such careers," he said, 
"are the glory of the American Continent. They show that 
the people have a sovereign insight into intrinsic force." 
He then referred to the American opportunity and held up 
the instances of the " rail-splitter," the "tanner" and the 
" canal boy," who had become Presidents as showing " a noble 
sense of the dignity of labor, a noble superiority to the vani- 
ties of feudalism, a strong conviction that men should be 
honored simply as men, not according to the accidents of 
birth." 

Grouping Lincoln and Garfield and Grant, he avowed that 
"every true man derives a patent of nobleness direct from 
God. Was not the Lord for thirty years a carpenter of 
Nazareth ? The conscientious attention to humble duties 
fitted these men to become kings of men." Referring to the 
war for the Union, he said : " God's light has shown for the 
future destinies of a mighty nation that the war of 1861 was 
necessary — a blessed work. The cause for which Grant fought 
— the unity of a great people, the freedom of a whole race — 
was as great and noble as when at Lexington — 

'The embattled farmers stood 
And fired the shot heard round the world.' " 

Considering the high station and representative character of 
the speaker, the place and occasion of the address, and the 
make up of the audience, his words contain a most generous 



7l8 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

and precious tribute to Grant and his country, and serve to 
show, better than any thing at home, the world-wide influence 
of his life and regard for his name and memory. 



IN STATE AT ALBANY. 

The funeral train from Mt. McGregor, consisting of seven 
cars, arrived at Saratoga at 1.50 p.m. All along the route it 
had passed through groups of silent people gathered to pay their 
respects to the dead. Its arrival was heralded by deep-toned 
cannon. Strong guards of Grand Army comrades lined either 
side of the track, both to honor the coming and stay the 
throng. The mountain train ran alongside of the funeral 
train on the Hudson Road, which was even more heavily and 
far more artistically draped. Amid the firing of minute guns 
and a very large concourse of silent spectators, the remains 
were transferred frotn one train to the other, at the very spot 
where, seven weeks before, the enfeebled General had been 
transferred the other way, on his trip to the mountain. 

At 2.20 the Hudson River train, with its nine cars, moved 
through Saratoga on its way to Albany. Thousands of 
people, with bowed hearts, looked upon its passage. The 
houses of this usually gay place bore emblems befitting the 
occasion — festoons of crape, draped flags, or elaborate insignia 
of woe. And as here, so everywhere along the route the 
homes, the stations, the villages, the towns, testified their loss 
and witnessed their respect by emblems of mourning and 
solemn clusters at convenient view points. Balston was 
entered amid the tolling of bells and firing of minute guns. 
At Round Lake the school children were gathered on the 
platform, holding black-bordered flags while the train passed. 
From Cohoes to Albany the train moved through almost con- 
tinuous lines of people, and everywhere were manifested the 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 7 1 9 

same signs of general sorrow and the same decorous regard 
for the solemnity of the occasion. 

Albany's preparations for receiving and honoring the 
remains were complete. It was a forest of draped flags, the 
sombreness of whose effect was heightened by other evidences 
of mourning on public buildings, stores and private houses. 
All work had ceased. The organizations were out in force, 
and the citizens thronged the streets in solemn masses, or in 
endless processions. Three grand processional divisions 
received the remains as they passed into the city at 3.45 p.m. 
A signal gun made public announcement of the coming. 
Instantly the bells of every description began tolling, and all 
the steam-whistles opened their throats. The remains were 
transferred from the train to a funeral car drawn by six black 
horses. This car was a wheeled platform, upon which was 
raised a central dais for the coffin. It was heavily and artisti- 
cally draped. By 4 p.m. the immense procession — popu- 
lation of an entire city, augmented by that of a wide surround- 
ing — filed slowly and solemnly toward the Capitol, where the 
remains were laid in state upon an imposing catafalque, erected 
in the corridor. It is now 6 o'clock. The great public begin 
to sweep through the building and past the coffin. All night 
the halls resound with the slow, measured tread of those 
who would look for the last time on the old hero. It is 
a solemn, inspiring processional, eloquent in its silence, pro- 
found in its respect, honorary beyond precedent in its grand 
proportions. And so the nation was mourning and burying 
its beloved. 



IN STATE AT NEW YORK. 

At eleven o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, August 
5th, Albany surrendered the remains in much the same way 



720 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

she had received them, by firing of minute guns, tolling of 
bells, and an immense procession to the cars. By 12.30 p.m. 
the casket was placed on the funeral car, and the long train of 
ten steam carriages, all covered with heavy drapery, moved, 
without clang of bell or sound of whistle, down the Hudson 
for New York City. At every town, station and rural road 
crossing were emblems of grief, and groups of sad-faced, un- 
covered people. At 5 p. m. the train came to a stand in the 
Grand Central Depot, which was elaborately draped. New 
York had prepared for an imposing reception of the remains. 
The casket was borne to a large catafalque, drawn by twelve 
black horses. The military were out in force, and quickly fell 
into line. Civilians found their places, and amid the tolling of 
bells, firing of minute guns, and solemn music of the bands, 
the remains were escorted to the City Hall, and laid in state 
upon a platform swathed in black, erected in the centre of the 
corridor. Though the building is tamer in its proportions than 
the State Capitol, the surroundings of the platform were richer 
and more artistic, and the effect more solemn and touching. 

By 9 p. m. the body was exposed to public view and from 
that time till long after midnight an unbroken stream of hu- 
manity poured through the corridor to pay their respects and 
look for the last time on the face of the honored dead. The 
body was still fairly well preserved. It lay with one hand across 
the breast, lips slightly separated, eyelids gently curved, and 
face a picture of peaceful composure and literal rest. 

On Thursday and Friday, August 6th and 7th, from six 
o'clock in the morning till midnight, the corridors reverberated 
the tread of the masses that flowed through in a stream which 
divided at the casket. The number that passed while the 
remains lay in state can only be approximated. At an easy 
pace, one hundred and twenty could pass in a minute. There- 
fore, during the forty-two hours in which the public were per- 
mitted to file by, over three hundred thousand persons must have 




IN STATE AT CITY HALL. 



721 



722 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

passed the remains. And these were not alone of New York, 
nor yet of neighboring cities and states, but pilgrims from far 
off places of the Union, who had corneas if to a sacred shrine, 
and whose numbers, by Saturday, August 8th, had well nigh 
doubled the population of the great metropolis. 



TO THE TOMB. 

The national funeral of General Grant took place in New 
York City, on Saturday, August 8th, 1885. This was its loca- 
tion and centre, but it took place everywhere in the land, and 
wherever in the world civilization wept an ornament, humanity 
an exemplar, and freedom a champion. A metropolis might 
extend special ceremony, might frame local pageantry, might 
claim shrunken ashes, but the country and the world were 
burying, with a regret as deep as their loss, and a reverence as 
wide as his name, the one they loved and owned. There could 
be no 3 imitation to the desire to honor the dead chieftain, if not 
by outward manifestation, at least by inward ceremonial of the 
heart. And so with the actual cortege that moved in regular 
line and with step solemnly measured by muffled drum beat or 
symphonious dirge, through thronged streets and by the deep 
river to the tomb, there moved throughout the land a sympa- 
thetic cortege which kept even step with the more ostentatious 
processional, and laid away, with as deep a reverence, its 
imaginary purple casket, burdened with stark ideal remains, in 
the precious tomb of national affection. 

The business spirit of New York was entirely lost in the 
solemnity of an occasion which mingled so much of profound 
sadness with the high spirit of patriotism, so much of tender 
respect with the glow of ceremonial honors. The bier was 
hers, and the walled up tomb, but not the contents. The 
funeral was not hers, but the nation's, the world's. She was a 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 723 

temporary agent, holding, for the time being, a sublime com- 
mission. Right worthily did she perform her trust, aided by 
every representative force that could magnify homage and sol- 
emnize pageantry. The Government lent its presence in the 
form of President, ex- Presidents, Cabinet, Senators, Congress- 
men, its Army and Navy. The National Guard was repre- 
sented by its finest regiments : the Grand Army by delegations 
of veterans from countless Posts ; the Confederate army by 
numerous detachments of survivors. Civic organizations of 
all kinds found places in the cortege. Add to these the un- 
countable hosts that, as citizens, augmented the procession, or 
fringed the miles of route, on either side, and one can readily 
realize that popular demonstration of respect for the dead 
could not have taken more impressive form, nor been more 
universal. 

The day was practically a holiday everywhere. The business 
pulse was still in the North and South, the East and West, 
either by solemn official proclamation, or spontaneous consent. 
Muffled bells spoke in monotones from ambitious city spires 
and modest village belfries. Minute guns sent their sullen 
notes reverberatingly through the valleys and up the wooded 
steeps. In town, in hamlet, in family, the day was a memorial 
one, dedicated to service of tribute, sacred to the memory of 
the dead. It was a day, too, commemorative of manly vir- 
tues, consecration to duty, and patriotic achievements, with- 
out which in mourner, as in mourned, there could be no per- 
petuity for this " government of the people, by the people, and 
for the people." 

It was another day of cool summer splendor after a night 
of storm. It was a general remark that Providence seemed 
to be specially ordering the weather for the entire obsequies. 
At 1 a. m. of August 8th the gateway to the City Hall had 
been closed to the public, and the casket left alone with the 
guard, its precious contents shut off forever from moital 



724 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

vision. But, though the silence of death reigned within the 
sombre corridors, the city's hum did not cease outside, for all the 
subsequent hours were occupied by the arrival of delegations 
from other places, and, very soon, by the centreing of the 
throngs in search of available spots to witness the beginning 
of the ceremonies. By nine o'clock the route of the procession 
was a sea of humanity, eager yet decorous, curious yet regret- 
ful. The masses alone were making an occasion commen- 
surate with the fame of their dead. 

At a quarter of nine the Liederkranz singers massed them- 
selves in front of the coffin and rendered "The Pilgrim 
Chorus." Even before this the regiments, bands and military 
detachments were taking their designated places in the street, 
under the direction of General Hancock, and now, at 9.30, 
they began to move in the direction of the tomb. 

I. 
ARMY AND NAVY. 

MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK AND STAFF. 

Light Battery F, U. S. A.; Band; Engineers U. S. A.; Band; 
Batteries I, L, M, H, of Fifth Artillery; Band; Battery A, 
Fifth Artillery ; Company E, Twelfth Infantry ; U.S. Marines; 
three battalions of U. S. Sailors. 

Estimated number of Federal troops and marines, 1438. 

II. 

FIRST DIVISION OF NATIONAL GUARD. 

MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER SHALER AND STAFF. 

First Brigade. — First Battery; Twenty-second, Ninth, 
Eleventh and Twelfth Regiments, New York State. 

Second Brigade. — Second Battery; Seventh, Seventy-ninth, 
Eighth and Seventy-first Regiments. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 725 

Veteran Guards. — Old Guard; Governor's Foot Guard, 
Connecticut; One-hundred-and-sixty-fifth New York Volun- 
teers ; Zouave Association ; Tenth Regiment, Volunteer 
Veterans, New York ; Fifth Regiment Zouaves ; Second 
Company Washington Continentals ; Columbo Guard ; Italian 
Rifles; Garibaldi Legion; three companies Veteran Colored 
Guards. 

Estimated number in First Division National Guards, 
4850. 

III. 
SECOND DIVISION OF NATIONAL GUARD. 

MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD L. MOLINEUX AND STAFF. 

First Brigade. — Third Battery ; Thirteenth, Fourteenth and 
Seventeenth Regiments. 

Second Brigade. — Twenth-third, Thirty-second, and Forty- 
seventh Regiments. 

Visiting Organizations. — First Regiment Pennsylvania Na- 
tional Guards ; Gray Invincibles ; Second Regiment Connec- 
ticut National Guards ; First Regiment Massachusetts Infantry. 
Four Companies Virginia troops; Union Veteran Corps, 
District of Columbia; Capitol City Guards; Company D, 
First Minnesota; Veteran Zouaves. 

Estimated number in Second Division National Guards, 
2605. 

IV. 

FIRST DIVISION NEW JERSEY NATIONAL 
GUARDS. 

MAJOR-GENERAL PLUME AND STAFF. 

First Brigade. — First, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Regiments $ 
First and Second Batteries ; Gatling Gun Company " 4?" 



726 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Second Brigade. — Third, Sixth and Seventh Regiments ; 
Gatling Gun Company "B." 

Estimated number of outside military, 5027. 

PALL BEARERS. 

General William T. Sherman, Lieutenant-General Philip 
H. Sheridan, Admiral David D. Porter, Vice-Admiral Stephen 
C. Rowan, General Joseph E. Johnston, General Simon B. 
Buckner, A. J. Drexel, substituted for Hamilton Fish, George 
S. Boutwell, George W. Childs, Senator John A. Logan, 
George Jones and Oliver Hoyt. 

After the procession had moved thus far, and before the pall 
bearers took their places, the heavy funeral car was drawn upon 
the plaza in front of the City Hall by twenty-four black horses. 
It was an elevated frame work on wheels. Its width was nine 
feet and its length sixteen. It was heavily draped on all sides, 
and the folds fell nearly to the ground, covering the wheels. 
In the centre was erected a canopy, with heavy ostrich plumes 
at either corner, and in the centre. The central plume towered 
fully seventeen feet above the ground. Beneath the canopy 
was a dais on which the casket rested. The car was heavily 
ballasted to keep it steady. The festooning was of exquisite 
design, that on the rear of the car representing a sunset. It 
was unrelieved by any appearance of white or silver, the only 
break being the draped silk flags at each corner of the canopy. 

And now the draped car was to receive its honored burden 
and take its place in the solemn pageant. The way to the car 
was lined on either side by regulars, representing the infantry 
and artillery. Within the Hall was a strong guard of honor. 
Twelve of these reverently raised the casket and bore it to the 
car, on which it was placed and fastened. It was now a quar- 
ter of ten o'clock. The sombre car moved, preceded by a 
Grand Army escort and followed by the national pall bearers. 
Then came the next division of the pageant—? 



728 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

V. 
OFFICIAL AND OTHER GUESTS IN CARRIAGES. 

The family (except Mrs. Grant, who remained at Mt. McGregor) 
and relatives; Grant's old staff and cabinet; clergy and physi- 
cians; President and cabinet; judges, senators and congress- 
men; Governor of New York and staff; ex-presidents and 
their cabinets; foreign ministers; diplomatic and consular 
officers ; governors of states ; heads of war department bureaus ; 
army officers; navy officers; minor United States officials; 
mayors of cities. 

VI. 

VETERAN DIVISION. 

MAJOR-GENERAL, DANIEL E. SICKLES AND STAFF. 

This division was made up of very many regiments, com- 
panies, and organizations of veterans from various States of 
the Union ; but largely of representatives from the Grand 
Army Posts. It was numerically the strongest division in the 
pageant, and its numbers were estimated at 18,500. 

VII. 
CIVIC DIVISION. 

GENERAL MARTIN T. MCMAHON AND STAFF. 

Various societies, business associations, clubs and citizens. 
Number in Civic Division and in carriages estimated at 8000. 

Thus over ' 40,000 people were in line of march, making 
one of the most imposing demonstrations ever witnessed in 
the city or country. It passed unbroken up to Fifty-ninth 
street, about half the distance to the tomb. From this point 
on, it became more essentially military, more measured, but 
without the inspiration furnished by perhaps half a million of 
sympathetic lookers on. 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 729 

THE PARK AND TOMB. 

Riverside Park is merely the bluffy, undeveloped stretch of 
land which skirts the Hudson above the built-up portion of 
the city. It is reached by the Riverside drive, which ends 
beyond th^ site selected for the tomb, distant fully ten miles 
from the City Hall. The bluffs are somewhat bold, and the 
spot picturesque. It overlooks the plains rendered historic by 
Washington and his army, and the ground where Hamilton 
and Burr met in deadly duel. The temporary tomb is at the 
foot of a brow, upon which it is intended to erect a mau- 
soleum. The vault is of brick, trimmed with blue-stone. 
Inside of it is a steel case, whose sides are half an inch thick, 
and whose weight is 3800 pounds. This is the receptacle for 
the casket containing the remains, after it has been first placed 
in its lead-lined cedar covering. The vault is hung- with 
heavy bronze doors, which, when opened, permit a view of the 
steel casing within. Around these doors are strong iron 
railings. The structure was hastily built, is of very modest 
appearance, and is designed to be only a temporary receptacle. 

Hither the procession was now coming. Several men-of- 
war had anchored in the river opposite. These dipped their 
colors and blended their salutes with the funereal music of the 
bands, as the solemn cortege drew near the tomb. Then there 
was a closing up of the marching ranks, a filing in of mourners, 
friends and the great army of followers, a new arrangement of 
cohorts to insure order and solemnity amid the crush of the 
throng. The veterans of the Grand Army lifted the casket 
from the car and placed it in the area in front of the tomb. 
The family, pall bearers, dignitaries, veterans, people — mourn- 
ers all — gather around, while all the bands make sacred melody, 

" . . . and ye grim throats 
That spoke his iron menace, wake again 
To chant a requiem to the answering hills ; 
Our captain sleeps." 



73° LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

Then came silence more impressive than the dirge note and 
the cannon's bass. The multitude uncovered. The delega- 
tion from the George G. Meade, Grand Army Post No. i of 
Philadelphia, of which General Grant was a member, to whom 
had been assigned the honor of conducting the burial services 
of the organization, took their places about their old comrade. 
Following the beautiful ritual, the Post Chaplain invoked the 
divine blessing : 

" God of battles ! Father of all ! amidst this mournful assem- 
blage, we seek Thee with whom there is no death. Open 
every eye to behold Him who changed the night of death into 
morning. In the depths of our hearts we would hear the 
celestial word, ' I am the Resurrection and the Life ; he that 
believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' As 
comrade after comrade departs, and we march on with ranks 
broken, help us to be faithful unto Thee, and to each other. 
We beseech Thee, look in mercy on the widows and children 
of deceased comrades, and with Thine own tenderness console 
and comfort those bereaved by this event, which calls us here. 
Give them 'the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise 
for the spirit of heaviness.' 

"Heavenly Father! bless and save our country with the 
freedom and peace of righteousness, and through Thy great 
mercy, a Saviour's grace, and Thy Holy Spirit's favor, may we 
all meet at last in joy before Thy throne in heaven, and to 
Thy great name shall be praise for ever and ever! " 

The Post Commander : 

" One by one, as the years roll on, we are called together to 
fulfill the last sad rites of respect to our comrades of the war. 
The present, full of the cares and pleasures of civil life, fades 
away, and we look back to the time when shoulder to shoulder 
on many battle fields, or around the guns of our men-of war, 
we fought for our dear old flag. We may indulge the hope 



732 LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

that the spirit with which on land and sea, hardship, privation 
and danger were encountered by our dead heroes, may never 
be blotted out from the history or memories of the generations 
to come — a spirit uncomplaining, obedient to the behest of 
duty, whereby to-day our national honor is secure and our 
loved ones rest in peace under the protection of the dear old 
flag. May the illustrious life of him whom we lay in the 
tomb to-day prove a glorious incentive to the youth who, in 
ages to come, may be called upon to uphold the destinies of 
our country. As the years roll on, we too shall have fought 
our battles through and be laid to rest, our souls following 
the long column to the realms above, as grim death, hour by 
hour, shall mark its victims. Let us so live then that when 
that time shall come, those we leave behind may say above 
our graves, ' Here lies the body of a true-hearted, brave, and 
earnest defender of the Republic' " 

A wreath of evergreen, symbol of love, a rose, symbol of 
purity, a laurel wreath, symbol of affection, were laid upon the 
casket. Then the chaplain : 

" The march of another comrade is over, and he lies down 
after it in the house appointed for all the living. Thus sum- 
moned, this open tomb reminds us of the frailty of human life 
and the tenure by which we hold our own. ' In such an hour 
as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.' 

" It seems well we should leave our comrade to rest where over 
him will bend the arching sky, as it did in great love when he 
pitched his tent, or lay down weary by the way, or on the battle- 
field, for an hour's sleep. As he was then, so he is still, — in the 
hands of the Heavenly Father. ' God giveth His beloved sleep.' 

"As we lay our comrade down here to rest, let us cherish his 
virtues and strive to emulate his example. Reminded forcibly 
by the vacant place so lately filled by our deceased brother 
that our ranks are thinning, let each one be so loyal to every 
virtue, so true to every friendship, so faithful in our remaining 



IN STATE AND AT THE TOMB. 733 

march, that we shall be ready to fall out here and to take our 
places at the great review, not with doubt, but in faith that the 
merciful Captain of our salvation will call us to that fraternity 
which, on earth and in heaven, may remain unbroken. Jesus 
saith, ' Thy brother shall rise again. I am the Resurrection and 
the Life.' Behold the silver cord having been loosed, the golden 
bowl broken, we commit the body to the grave, where dust shall 
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it. 
Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, looking for the resur- 
rection and the life to come, through our Lord Jesuj Christ." 

The ritual concluded with the " Bugle Call," signifying 
" Rest." In the hands of a skillful player the sweet, mellow 
tones of the instrument drifted away on the breeze until they 
were heard by the sailors on the decks of the war vessels. 
Beginning softly, the tone gradually increased until it rose 
clear as a bell on the high notes, and then gradually diminished, 
like the sound of an Alpine horn re-echoing among the moun- 
tains, until a few notes gently repeated at the finish seemed to 
come from the clouds. There was a long, silent pause, after 
the ritual was completed, when the Post withdrew and made 
way for the clergymen. 

It was now five o'clock p. m. Bishop Harris at once began 
the impressive ritual of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
which was concluded by Rev. Dr. Newman. Again the 
bugler blew the call " Lights out " or " taps." Strong men 
came forward and lifted the casket. It was much heavier than 
before, now that it was in its cedar casing. They bore it within 
the tomb and placed it in its steel receptacle. There was a la t 
longing look into the deep cold resting-place by the family, and 
then the immense masses began to break. The regiments 
facing the river fired their parting volleys of musketry, and the 
deeper-mouthed artillery followed with the presidential salute 
of twenty-one guns. Land and sea joined in their highest 
tribute and saddest farewell. The great man was at rest. 



734 



LIFE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



And so the curtain falls on an earthly career. The death, 
the funeral, of General Grant is an epoch. It closes one 
chapter and begins another, not less eloquent and important in 
American history than memorable as a period in the develop- 
ment of mankind. The " discoverer of the Union " was no 
less an evangel of peace, than the founder of a place for this 
nation, higher, broader and more enduring than it ever before 
occupied among the nations of the earth. 




INTERIOR OF THE TOMB. 
Requiescat in Pace! 



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